Legends of Avantris - Stardust Rhapsody: Anthem | S2E3 | Carry On Wayward Son

Episode Date: August 14, 2026

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It's that time again to don your sunglasses, grab your instruments, and lend your cosmic chorus to our Stard Us Rhapsody. Let's jam. Hunting the trail of bodies left by Portia Bella, you found yourselves on Asriel in Val Scudder's apartment. As you searched it, it becomes clear he made his fortune brokering deals for off-the-books, mercenaries, hit men, security, and more. Two more things stood out as especially strange. In his closet, mad ravings carved into his dresser all around what looked like a depiction of glubbondo. The second is a tattoo on his chest of a serpent eating its tail. Trail gone cold, you head back to the Rhapsody to discuss what comes next.

Silica walks into the room to deliver a message from Mega Destroyer. Play my game and find me. If you're the gridrunner, I think you are, I'm waiting for you. Ziggy finally hacks into the Astrovox Grid Boy 3200 and finds his rival on Syncom in the one-up arcade. You quickly dispatch the traps left in your way and face Mega Destroyer. An arcade eruption of code and destruction takes place until finally she is defeated, and you at last rip away the matter. You find yourself face to face with a young Claudein girl in her mid-20s.

Pressing her for information on Portia Bella, she hits you with one more gut punch. Portia Bella's next target is Ziggy's brother. The upbeat tunes of bit-crunched chip tune music from hundreds of arcade cabinets in the next room's over is all that could be heard in the stunned silence from the shocking revelation that has just been uttered in the command center, of Megadestroir. Along with the reverberating echo of a single word, Brother. The scrawny and scruffy Claudeyrainer hacker

looks up at you with wide amber eyes past strands of crusty blonde hair, seemingly waiting for a reaction from Ziggy about the apparent fate of his sibling at the hands of the renowned assassin, you all have been hunting for months. Her tail flits back and forth eagerly, seemingly, unfazed that she has been beaten bloody and bruised and stripped of her datapad. What?

He's in danger? That's right. Information! Be the one. I knew once I saw your code that the 3200 had. You would plummet its depths, explore its codes, and burst out all it holds within, finding me at the end of your hero's quest. You're truly magnificent.

Oh, and the way you hacked my arcade trap? If you hadn't done so well, I was gonna have a hardlight and animals of all your friends come out and attack. But I knew you'd handle it to have a real match with a peer and equal. She places her palm on your chest. Or motions to. Of course, you know what it's like to be surrounded by ID10Ts with no ability to understand simple hyperdark code.

She looks around the room scanning the party. It's been so... All that's behind you because I'm here now, DinoBite, and you're mine. Guys? He's not yours. No. No, no, no, Ziggy, Ziggy, no. You gotta stop saying this shit to him, okay?

We're here because you're a fucking murderer that's trying to fuck with all of our shit, okay? We've taken you down, we've beaten you, your nerd magic didn't work, and don't think that if you try anything again, you're not gonna knock me down twice, okay? Oh, do they love each other? Because I don't know which one it is.

You gotta stop talking right now. We don't want to put any ideas. This is gonna be a problem. This is gonna be a real problem. No, I think it's a real problem. Hey! You're here because I invited you. And because DinoBite is a masterpiece of coding ingenuity.

Magnificent. Magnificent to see. But yes, I've been tracking Portia Bella for some time. I never really could tell how she picked her next targets. But it's become clear that your brother, he's next. He's on her list. Hey, Brett.

Yeah. If this is true, this is a serious problem. I mean, we're talking political assassination levels, stuff that we're getting roped into here. Well, the good news is his station in life. How well protected is this guy, Ziggy? I... I mean, I know Portiavella's skilled, but there's almost no way that she could... I get to him, the defenses would be, it would be almost impossible. Oh, poor Chappelle is, she's scoped out that tempo he's in. She knows everything. She knows every way in.

You can't, when she sets her sights on you, you can't, you can't evade it. My brother's in trouble, guys. Well, and that's why we came and beat this nerd up. It's because you're going to help us. You're gonna tell us everything that you know. And you're gonna help us take down this assassin so that your brother's not gonna fucking die, okay? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

We beat your game and I hacked your arcade, and my code is excellent, and you're gonna tell us everything that you know. Tell you everything I know to help you be Portia Bella. I mean, you haven't seen it. She's gathering materials. She's gathering materials for an amount of poisons to neutralize every enemy in the place.

You can't stand as against her. She's gonna take everyone down, just like in Blade Orphan TurboVengeance Season 2, Episode 15, when Aliricade has to infiltrate the Tenticle Clans headquarters. Oh, episode 15 is so cool. Yes, it is. Stop talking. Stop talking. We are an experienced bounty hunting group,

and we're gonna put a stop toward it, and she's our next target. That's the only reason we're here, and you put all of my friends' lives in danger. Poisons? Really poisons. They're gonna kiss at the end of this. No. I take a step back.

I'm still holding the data pad power glove thing that she had on her arm. I'm still holding up my grid boy, and I'm being pulled in four directions at the same time because we're hurt. We've had this horrible experience, and I'm still out of breath from her craziness, and everything that she's saying is like another language to Ziggy. So the expression on his face is a blend of those things,

and then the actual fear of whether or not she's correct. You're obviously in particular, especially rattled here. You all as a group have been hunting Portia Bella now for months, and you have never been able to catch up to her. She's left a trail of bodies in her wake. You have never known her to set her sights on a target and not neutralize them. And so to hear that her next target is your brother,

absolutely, you're shaking. You want to see my code? I want to see your code. I want to see the evidence that you have that Portia Bella is targeting my brother next and I want to be sure, for real. And I know that Mega Destroyer isn't your real name. That's your code name.

I want to know everything about you so that I think, so that, uh, so that we know, uh, your identity. Do great, Zeg. You're as impressive in person as you are behind the, the net. It's Megan. Megan? But everyone calls me Meg. And by everyone, I just mean me to myself.

I don't talk to too many other people, except online. Where they call me Mega Destroyer. Megan. All right, uh, Meg. Uh, uh, uh, well, well, I, I, I, Is all the data here on your power glove or some other machine that you have here? No, that was destroyed in the fight, but in the back room where I set up, I can take you back there. I've been tracking Portia Bella for some time now.

It was fun. I stumbled across her when hacking into the GBG. I was looking at two guys who thought they were extras in high moon, blood and dust. This guy Quibbley Goans, had a paper. trail running way back, eventually connecting to her. Oh, yeah, she did. They did remind me of High Moon a little bit. And I would have found all that information, too, if I had been distracted with your your puzzle game, which was really cool, but I cracked it.

You enjoyed it? I really built it specifically for you. I thought you'd really, really like the arcade cabinet in particular. Guys, she wants to take me to her back room. I don't know what to do. Okay. I mean, can you authorize torture here? I feel it's gonna be way more effective and we're gonna prevent a lot of fucking problems down the line, rat.

I understand Coe, this feels like it's, I know it's awkward, but it's going pretty well. Just, we're not torturing anybody. Let them do his thing. Okay. I mean, everyone deserves love, Co. You're doing well, Zee. I'll kinda, give him a little bump on the shoulder.

I'm an experienced bounty hunter, so the next thing that we, do is we gotta we gotta make sure you're not a threat anymore. So do we have any like, I don't know,

manacles or something? You want a handcuffer already? You spent a lot of time on the dark web. Here, here. I'll pass in some handcuffs. And you know, once you get those on, it's only customary that we make sure we, you know, pat her down before we put it

on the Rhapsody. Make sure, you know, She's not hymn thing. We're taking her with us? Well, we can't leave her here. And she's got information we need. And, you know. Well, can't she just give us that information so we don't have to take her with? That cell was for shitmail shit jaws.

He's not still in there, is he? No. Okay. No, but he might stop them. I'm sure he'll turn up, seriously. I, I guess he might come back. I'm sure it'll turn up eventually. Smells like her.

Well, he probably got, you know, 15 to life, but you know, who's just, I was just to say I never checked up on him. It's not really a problem. It's not been okay. I kind of miss him. Notes and notes. All right, fine. If we have to take her,

she can stay and shit mouse tell. Until we get Porsche. Yeah. You're sure that it's the right thing to do, Co. You don't have me a fucking choice. All right, Coe thinks you don't have any choice, guys. She's been a rough customer. She's eluded us at every fucking, every turn.

That's true. She's been a rough. She's clowned on us. Well, I'm a little embarrassed. She's clown on us. Red. I think we gotta take her. That sounds good to me, Paxel. Good idea.

Great job, Co. Are you gonna put the cuffs on me yourself? Oh, this ought to be real good, Red. She turns around and arches her back and connects her palms together and backs towards you. I walk up and I and I click the first wrist with the handcuffs. And I'm imagining that there's, uh... Yeah, Jesus Christ. I'm a swishing tail against your face as you try.

Your vision is almost blocked as you have a heart. I'm seeing gotta attach the... I click the second one, but I have to roll it around this, uh, the, uh, all the way around it. I miss the, I check it. I'm a patter down. All right, man, meg, uh, Meg, uh, stay still. Okay. Oh.

Oh. Oh. I don't feel anything. She's all right. I'll hold her by the shoulders. They're just sort of like hold her at arm's length. Now what? Well, I can take you to where I had set up,

set up my private station in the arcade. That's the only place I have any information left that'll point you towards Portia Bella. But I wasn't finished telling you the story, the hacking. You know, the, the, the, Quibbley and Glup, Hi Moon, that wasn't the weirdest thing.

You want to know what the weirdest thing was? Yeah, yeah, yeah, we're very interested in what the weirdest thing is. The weirdest thing? They, they, they were associated with something called the Gun Hawk Agency. But even before that, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, glup, uh, he seemed to come out of nowhere. There's no trace of him prior to picking up the bounty for Haxor.

Now that made me curious, a fun new challenge. I searched the hypergrid every dark corner of it and I couldn't find a single thing about him. Now there are more than a handful of people who could have done something like this, but still, it's almost like he materialized out of nowhere to hunt him down. I never thought to look into either than that deeply. I... Wait, you're telling you. telling me, that weirdo with like the slime room, materialized out of nowhere to kill Ziggy?

Who has a slime room? I don't know, I read about the slime room. He was dead after I joined the crew, or before I joined the crew. Yeah, he's the one- They were a package deal, they were like a duo. I, what do you mean? Doesn't make any sense.

It felt like they had been traveling together for, I don't know, a while. They may have, I, uh, it, uh, it, uh, they may have. All I can tell you is that in the hypergrid, anywhere that a piece of information may have lived about Glob, nothing. Nothing went any deeper than about the time he met Quibble. There's no evidence that he existed. Where the hell did you find these guys? I mean, I was putting touch with them, you know, because a graph.

You know, I... We all thought they were just, you know, members of the... the guild and... What the hell? I needed a tracer. And he had an Esper buddy. So that Balf guy that got his fucking head blown off, that put him in touch with your buddy, was working with this hawk thing, this agency?

The Gun Hawk agency. Yeah, yeah. Is that a name that any of us would have ever put them before? Roll a... Maybe Reddard. Maybe Redd. Maybe Redd.

A... A history check? History check? Hit drinks? History check, yes. How's your history? How's your history? Oh, what's your history? Oh, mine's only plus one.

So if I can assist you. No, no, you... This, mine's plus five. You should... I'm assisting you. We're both thinking of this together. You can roll it in it. You're putting our heads together. You're putting your heads together.

That's good. Oh, good. Good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good. Okay, 18. 18. 18, you know for certain you have never heard of this before. Uh... Not even a hint, a whiff, a rumor, gun hawk agency. That does not ring any bells.

For Quibbley to have a deep connection or a long-running history, you're not sure what that means. Doesn't ring a bell? No, I never heard of it. I mean, I figured that, you know, they got their contract somewhere. Didn't he mention something about a contract and, you know, a hit on Ziggy? Well, quite frankly, in our final confrontation, they were. Saying a lot of shit. Yeah.

I wish I'd met this guy. No, you don't. I'm glad I never met that guy. Yeah, me too. Sounds like a bunch of just a bunch of real fucking weirdos. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, gosh.

Real fucking weirdos. Picking up a bunch of fucking weirdos to his crew. Thank God we're not like that. Thank God we're not those weirdos. Yeah. They were damn good at what they did. We've never picked up a weirdo. We've only picked up shit mouse.

Jaws. Ziggi, how well do you know your brother? I mean, we... He's a bit older than I am, so, you know, there was a lot of time when he was at school that I was, you know, too young for that sort of thing. And then by the time I started to really come of age, she was basically on the track to, you know, being a part of the church. You think that there's anything specific that he has done or is doing why she'd want to kill him? Well, you know, she's been on this, like, path of vengeance, so she's, like, connecting dots. I don't know the, the, the, the, the, the, the through line, right? Uh, yeah, why, why were those guys after me?

Yeah, wasn't there some sort of like, you know, just because of my name, wasn't that enough? Yeah, but this is Portia Bella we're talking about, right? Right, and if she's doing a vengeance thing, then what is the political ties? I'm just not seeing it here. Did you guys ever meet Portia Bella? No. But, you know, Quibbley did talk about her a lot.

So did Captain Sawtooth. He was real afraid of her. Yeah. What was that thing that Gloop said? Are you there when he said it? I can't remember. Something about Century

21,000 or something. Yeah, something about war. Huh. Because I was... I mean, I know that my rig was destroyed. But I would have had all of the monitors and the recordings and all of that stuff when I was pretending to be Haxor and had this, you know, obfuscated personality. And we were all going through, you know, basically setting traps and playing a game just like Meg did just now.

Would I still have any of that data? Could I go back and look at that sort of thing? Maybe a history check or something to see if I have... I think the three of you discussing it, you can roll whomever would like can roll history check at advantage. I think that any of your data from that time on those servers was destroyed when the Dendonganite facility exploded. 23. With a 23, you recall that in Glob's final moments, when you were confronting him in combat after he had... ascended, you recall that he spoke out a warning that Century 2112 would be one of war.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. He said, like, Century 2112 would be one of war. What the fuck does any of that mean? What the fuck is Century 2112? I got a lot of digging to do. I don't want to go to war. I want to do some investigation on the Hypergrid. See if I can find out more about the Gun Hawk agency and how Porsche's related to all of that. Well, does Megan know what the Gun Hawk Agency is? Do you know more about the Gun Hawk Agency, Meg?

I'm Mega Destroyer. You could call me Meg. Ziggy. Not while you're in these cuffs. Oh. So strong. Large arms. Okay, watch the tail.

Pre-coding? What? Okay, you don't need to be doing that. I know you control that. Tickles. The Gunn Hawk Agency, I didn't look to dive deeper into it. Just that Quibbley was associated it for a long time

as what looked like a gun for hire. An agency contracting mercenaries? I don't know. But what I have on Portia Bella is in the back room if you want to take me there, Ziggy. Do you want to take me to the back room, Ziggy? Can we all come? Are you just going to go with that?

I don't like being left. I think more than just me should go. I'm fucking literally you're not going in there Mega Destroyer just trying to to kill us all so you know there could be traps it could be real bad I That was a game

I thought you'd understand I'm bleeding from my ears I'm bleeding for most of me Well you were more like the side characters What? Excuse me I'm a poster Yeah it was kind of like you know

It was irrelevant whether or not you beat it. These are my best friends of the whole wild, wild cosmos, okay? How do you talk to them? The way we're talking right now, what are you talking about? How do they know what you're saying? I mean, how do they keep up with how brilliant and smart you are? You probably set all the plans and fix all the things and code everything.

And, I mean, what do they talk about? What do you mean? Who's going to roll the microwave into the bathroom for him? She does that for you? Ziggi- Who's the skank? She rose your microwave into the bathroom for you? I'm gonna grab her by like the-

stupid hoodie or whatever. The front, like the front, yeah. Okay, you fucking nerd, I don't care who the fuck you are. You can talk to me like that. You can, actually don't talk to Ziggy at all. But don't you dare fucking say anything bad about Pigtel. She is certainly not a skank. Okay? I don't see how you- I could snap you like a fucking twig

Now you don't have your fancy glove. That's true. That's true. Can I say something real quick? Yeah, Picks. Give it what for? I'm a I am a bit of a skink. I'm a bit of a skink's in my life and you're not a skank. Okay, but think you should apologize to me and then once we become friends you can say that Oh, I'm just looking at like we are not getting involved. I like stop. No, I stop. We're not gonna have another shit now Sit y'all's situation all right she's going to go on jessie you stay away from ziggie she's going to jail you convince me that i see the way you look at him and look at him i look at him all the time yeah give him a piece of your mind and as pixels like starting really excited and then this my face just drops more and more and he's like we can talk

about it be friend it's like wait what but no you need you got to stand up for yourself more than that, Picks. What do you mean? Punch her in the stomach! Punch her in the stomach! Okay! Roll the stomach! Well, I guess you just enter, roll damage, roll damage. Yeah, did you decide up? It was like 1D4?

Yeah. So, I'll get over to Pike. What does that happen? It'll say. A 1! A 1! She only has one hit point, you only, you only do one damage. Oh yeah. It's your strength modifier, minimum of 1, it's 0. So you can, all you can do is a 1. That's exactly how much one.

Exactly how much HP she had. You run up and leap. She's like now several feet off the ground that Co is holding her up in the air. You punch her square in the stomach. Oh, no. Oh, it happens to me too. Let's let it out.

I hold up her tail. That's right. She pukes. I didn't. Oh. They got to learn their lesson. Pets, I'm proud of you. See, you got to see.

You gotta stand up to bullies like that, huh? But now I feel like a bully. No, she's, do you, do I need to remind you what I'm, I'm, our weighted, I don't remember his name. I'll go over. I'll go over and I'll pull her hair back so that she's not puking on her hair. I'm sorry I punched you in the stomach. Are you okay?

I was just gonna say, imagine what happens when she finds out about silica, but I think the moment's past. Uh, I don't know if that moment's past yet, Red. Um... Mega Destroyer was a serious threat and we almost lost our lives in that arcade and your game was... was cool, but...

Really mean. Really mean, and really scary. And, uh, you know, we could have lost our lives. And everyone's really hurt. I'm... I'm hurt. And, uh, you know, you can't do that. We can't trust you. So, we're gonna go into the back room

and we're all gonna go. Because what do we need, Ziggy? Information. That's exactly right. We need to go on your computer and we need to get all of the research that you've done and then I'm going to verify it. What's it matter, Ziggie, a little distracted? This has been a strange day. Mm-hmm.

And we all remember what Gruff McSruff says, right? Only you can prevent forest fires. No, I don't think... No, hold on, hold on. No, I used to see the Gruff Mix Crubb commercial. No, hold on, hold on. He said, uh... We've all seen those commercials, right? I dare you to avoid drugs.

Closer. I'm sure he said that in the past. I don't remember. Take a look. It's in a book? You've got to sniff it out. I was gonna say... There we go. I was gonna say end the tiger poster.

Fuck. I always try to give them a chance to understand the references, but they never, they never do. I see. I see. No, that was fair play. At least somebody knows what I'm talking about. All right.

Where is it? Point the way with your tail. No, I, you know, come on, come on, let's go. Um, Cole, before we follow them, I'm very conflicted. Yeah, me too. I liked punching her in the stomach. Oh, no, good. But then I felt really bad about it afterwards.

Yeah, that'll go away. How do you, how do you be unfeeling? I mean, when they're bad people, I don't give a shit what happens to her. Oh, okay. They deserve it. Okay. I'm just going to follow along. You start walking through the arcade.

The cabinets in the other room still playing that sound. You pass this area now almost destroyed from the battle. You walk through a doorway towards the back right of the room. and down just a very short point hallway up to another door, effectively the security room of the arcade. Flickering blue-green light greets you as the soft glow of a single monitor illuminates a surprisingly small room. The computer tower beside it is huge

and covered in stickers of colorful characters and logos that only Ziggy recognizes. And its keyboard and mouth is covered in orange dutch. The room is filthy with dozens of empty soda cans and fast food wrappers strewn littering the floor and the desk of what seems to have been where Meg has been hold up for a long time A cable is plugged into the terminal. It's dongle seemingly the perfect fit for a grid boy And bitch you live like this It sticks There's a certain funk in the air

I'm not surprised at all. There's a certain mix of like convenience store, Fonavio, funk that's in the air. It's a little charred. Do we all need to be in the energy drink remnants, spilling out a... It smells like green. No, I mean, you can stay outside. Has nobody seen Ziggy's room? Am I the only one that goes in there?

Yes, yes, you are. It's not this bad, right. It's adjacent. I'm gonna make a mega destroyer I'm not touching her I'll get her by the handcuffs You got her out of handcuffs Her tail falls limply

Afterback She stands back there Do you have any unopened bag Of spicy chalkies Yes It's right over there Can I have some I've never had the spicy color

I'm in I'm in handcuffs so Yeah if you'd like I can't stop you. And it's just sticks of chalk covered in like spicy flavor. That's exactly what it is. Sticks of chalk covered in spicy flavor. Edible chalk covered in spicy flavor.

I love chalkies. I will wade through the mess and make my way over to the terminal. You walk up and you're kicking cans out of the way. There's a crinkle of wrappers as you step. You see microwavable burritos on the ground, wrappers on the ground. Almost you have to wade through it to get to the computer. It's not a big room,

but every step you take casts aside another fast food item. But I don't see any of it. I'm just focused on her rig and figuring out what technology she has, what monitor she has, what might be inside of the actual box that it's in. I don't know if it's flat and wide or tall or whatever, but I'm fascinated and I see that it would be easy

for me to plug into with my grid boy. So I push my glasses up against my face and I approach to see how the terminal looks and feel. You'll have to insert your dongle into the port there, Ziggy. Yeah. If you want to gain access. I know, I know. He knows what to do.

I'm standing next to Redd who's got, her and I'm just going to kind of look at her and be like, has anyone ever told you that you look a little sticky? Not many people see me back here. I live comfortably. Okay? Well, where I want, when I want. Thank you very much. And you really like cheese squigglys, don't you? And I look around there, there's hundreds of bags of empty cheese squigglys. All over the place. It's cheese squigglys. It's geck soda. And the, and the, and the The whole room again is once again covered in just about a layer of dust. I'm not a car.

So it's, yes, cheese squiggly, bags of cheese squiggly. Do I? Yes. I know that I said that I was just waiting through the mess and getting to the terminal, but in the back of my mind, would I just make the assumption that she has the ability to summon snacks the same way that I do from pulling them from the hypergrid, or is this something that like all of this food would have been readily available either near the place that we're in at like a local mart or like, I'm just trying to get a sense of...

No, I think you get a sense that she very ref, uh, very, she almost never left this room. You would gain the sense that she has a very similar ability to hold food items. So she's pulled these, all these different snack foods from, uh, from nothing with her code. That's very cool. And as you approach the setup, you would also understand as you look at it that this isn't something you could necessarily, uh, buy at a shop. These are compiled from computer components. This is a rig she's built to extend on and work into this network.

Extremely and extremely not a luxuriously high end, but everything you could need to run from here. This is a workhorse. This is a power setup. So plugging in, you would get access to her whole network. I'm going to start to before I plug in my dongle I'm going to tap

the keyboard in front of it if there is one or try to wake it up. I assume I would know how to do that with you would actually from the setup understanding the insert for the gridboy you would assume that the way this functioned is when she got here she would use her power glove to it. Oh. It's built to be interacted with by a gridrunner. I look at the power glove and I look at my huge arm. All right. All right. I just plug into the dungle. You plug in. Your gridboy handshakes the network of Mega Destroyer. It starts to boot up. You start looking everywhere for remnants. What is she been doing here? What is her a long? history show, what is the traffic,

you find that hours ago this unit was wiped almost bare for the exception of a handful of things. You find remnants of about 10 different lines

of code. You can start to download several of them. Two of them stand out to you. Something called PowerSag code and source deletion. What was the last one?

Source deletion. Source deletion. Jeez, lear. Huh. Okay. Didn't you just say that all of your information was on this thing? It looks like you wiped it. Well, yes.

Yeah, of course I wiped it. You have to wipe everything you do. But what you'll find on there is a couple lines of code I left for you as a treat. And also everything I was able to compile on Portiabella. notes, schematics of the temple, what she did to find your brother, the poisons,

she's been building the material she's been gathering, leaning towards poisons. Yeah, everything I know that she knows to hunt him down is there. I'll make a few keystrokes. And you'll find that as well.

I'll verify that all the information seems to be here. I don't know if I trust that she's, I'm worried that she's obfuscating and that if I were to break through her security protocols that I might be able to find more information Would I be able to use my grid boy to Spike deeper roll computers check I know it's all gotten so I know I know and because I'm using my grid boy I'm gonna do some advanced followers

That's going to be a close to seven. 25. With a 25. It will take, you're an especially gifted coder. It will still take a couple minutes for you to get a satisfactory

deep dive into her system. But after, I'd say probably about five to ten minutes of giving it all you got. Give me a few minutes, sorry. Give me a few minutes. You, By the God, she's giving him rude access.

Get it all the way down to the base, the code base. We'll verify that information. You seek every inch of this drive to see if there's any defenses, anything that looks like it's buried in code, overwritten code that you can undo, and you are satisfied that everything you find here is what you saw initially. the information she had on Portia Bella as well as several lines of code that she left specifically for you.

Any additional information that she would be able to give you about Portia Bella or help you in any way. You think that you would have to grant her access to code herself again? As I'm typing, I go into the ritual of being a hacker man. and not even thinking, reach over and grab one of the old sodas that's on the... What would occur to me that I've done this, I just sip some random energy drink. You hear pipe like that. And... Wait, what is?

Nasty. Don't. Don't. I did. Don't. Oh, God. And then, I think I got everything. I'm going to make a copy right now.

He's magnificent. I think I got it. I think I got it. We can analyze this back on the Rhapsody. Is that it? You're sure it's everything. As far as I can tell, and I'm pretty thorough. And you're sure it's safe to bring her aboard.

I think as long as we don't give her any technology, and she won't have access to the same way that if you took away my grid boy, all I could do is to sort of, you know, you remember that fight when I lost all my abilities, and all I could do is just gore people with my horn. You have a picture? I have an idea. What is it? You could have Silica keep an eye on her.

That's a great idea. She turns Silica into like an absolute shadow nightmare. Oh yeah, I forgot about all that holy shit. By the gods. Can she do that anymore? But no, that's because she had access to her tech. She probably can't do it now, right? She probably used this very rig.

But if she doesn't have her rig? Her rig, her computer, her terminal, or her power of the app. Oh, sure. Yeah. You just don't have any of those things. Can you mind dominate Z's big titty dilaphasaurus girlfriend? No, no, you know, put me in the brig and let silica guard me. That's, no, do that. I can't, I can't mind dominator.

I don't have no way to interact with there. I'd like to roll an inside check at disadvantage. You may roll an inside check in disadvantage. I try to see if I'm a believer. Actually. Wow. Wow. Yeah, that would have been really funny.

Uh, insight. Uh, that's a 14. Probably still not. That's good. You certainly do not know the inner workings of how grid running works, or even generally computers. Yeah. But you've seen Meg do some especially impressive things,

and you have an extreme sense of weariness about the idea of Silicon watching her alone. Me. I don't know. I feel like we don't have a choice. We didn't have to have her, monitored in the break. We didn't, we didn't monitor anyone else in the break. We had to, we had to take

it. That's not true. It brings the bridge for a reason. That's not true. I was stationed the monitor showm our shit jars. That was voluntary, Bixote. Nobody stationed you. I stationed me. In fact, he actively told you not to go there. He got lonely.

That's called a hobby, Bixel. It's not a station. I'll give her three square meals and she'll be fine otherwise. No one needs to on her. Yeah, fine. Right?

Nothing's going to happen if no one checks on you? Well, I mean, if nobody checks on me ever at any time? I mean... I wouldn't last that long in the brig if nobody came to...

It might come by, you know, just to take a look. Make sure you're not up to anything nefarious. It's probably best if Ziggy checks, because he's the only one that'd be able to tell if I was up to anything

really nefarious, because you guys just wouldn't understand. Yeah, but one of the of us will come with him though because we don't trust you at all. That's right. You did kind of try to kill us. It was a game! And you're all alive, you're here. You call me a skank.

Well, yeah. Yeah, I did do that. And then you didn't apologize afterwards when I told you was mean. And I bet you're gonna fetch a high bounty. Well, so now that we've figured out who you are Mega Destroyer, working with the fucking Scarlet Eye. Working with a loser like Donito control though? Yeah, what was that all about? Yeah. Thank you.

Yeah, you're a real piece of shit. Wow. Don't forget you a piece of shit, Ziggy. Please! I won't. Well, girls gotta make ends, meet. You take jobs where you find them. Yeah, I, I, uh, I created defenses for his systems. I was hired to do so.

Did you know what his systems did? That's not what was in the job. And I skimmed a little off. the top. I spent most of the time stealing from it. Oh. Good for you, girl. Good for you. I changed my mind, Ziggy. You're right. So when you saw that

a mob boss was spreading drug throughout communities to turn them into demonic zombies, to then steal their souls to open a gate to hell. You thought that was okay? I didn't think too hard about it. I needed a job

and I had to get paid and I work with whoever hires me. It doesn't matter what they need done. All I did was, uh, enforce his security. I didn't help him. I didn't help him execute his plan. I bet you're going to be worth a lot of fucking notes. I was just going to, yeah, I'm sure there's some kind of reward we can get, one way or another. Yeah. We'll be able to negotiate. So we're not, we're not cleaning out the slime room for after she's done in the brig? There hasn't been slime in any room for the last year, all right? When was the last time? Doesn't one of you sleep in the slime room? I forget which one was the

Slime room was sleeping in the slime room. One of them. Somebody definitely has slept in the slime. No, you're in the slime. Picks. That's your room. Is that why it keeps coming in there? What? Wait, wait, wait, what? I thought the slime room was Ophelia's room.

But then when Ophelia was staying in there, the slime moved into my room for a while. Do you need to call any room on the Rhapsody, the slime room? I don't know. I can't keep it straight. Whichever room belongs to that slime that, visits is its room. Is there a slime

on the Rhapsody? What? Lime on the Rhapsody. There was definitely a slime on Rhapsody. It was in the end. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Smash cut to the Rhapsody where the slime I'm here for it. No, you're all messing with me.

There's slime in that room. There's slime in the room. I'll take a look and make sure there's no slime in the room. It doesn't like you. It leaves every time you come up. Just because Gluck used to sleep in there doesn't mean it's the slime room just like, you know, Quibbley in the school room.

Yeah, it was kind of a slimy guy. Do you think you left it there to keep an eye on us? He didn't leave anything. No, he's dead. He's been dead for a long time. Well, not the slime. They killed him. Okay, but anyway, back to the original point.

So is, is Megan going to stay in the slime room and no? No, no, because anytime someone's in there. We're going to put in the break. I made a very special exception for Rex. All right. I want to stay in the slime room. I just want to, well, it's better than this. But I just want to make sure because anytime someone

occupies that room, I have to share my room with the slime, and so I don't want to. No one's going in the slime room. Great. Okay. All right. I think I have everything I need. I have all the data. All right, then let's just get her back to the Rhapsody and we'll figure out what the next steps look like. Is everybody cool with that?

Yeah, I grab my harm and I put it on Zing Chess and I push you about three feet back. And I step and I like tower over. over Meg and I say, is there gonna be a fucking problem when I carry you back? No. Are you gonna watch that fucking tail? Yeah, somebody's gonna watch it. Do I need to knock you out? No. If I feel that fuzzy fucking tail anywhere, I'm punching you in the face and you're gonna lose it to. No. I promise you.

I won't do it. And I won't feel bad when I fucking do it, okay? I'll behave. Make sure you keep her teeth intact, some guys like that. Some guys like teeth? I just grab her, throw her over my shoulder, and I turn her out, like, let's get the fuck out of here. I'm where you go. As we make our way back to the Rhapsody,

I would like to take a minute to just think about, cheese, mention these poisons. How much experience do Rhett and I have with any of the bounties that we've dealt with in the past, potentially using poisons? I think you'd have, I think that's something that wouldn't be, like, completely unknown to you. You would have seen poisoners before or certainly just have known of people implementing them,

maybe even other bounty hunters, to certain effects, paralyzation, damage, as far as death. So you'd have a, you know, moderate degree. I'm just keeping that in mind. She seems to be very, like, focused on this. And, you know, I would just be keeping it in mind and maybe offhandedly mention it to red as we're making our way back to, like, you know, think about, just keep that and, you know, Somewhere up there.

After they leave, I'll take up just a minute to do a quick once over of the room, you know, not beyond the computer, just let's see if there's anything physical in the room that might be a clue, just a quick investigation if I could. Roll an investigation check, please. In case there's anything useful beyond the bags.

Could I stay and help in the effort of also looking for more chalkies? You may roll your own investigation. Well, I was hoping I could maybe help with it. Yeah, wrecking roll. I mean, yeah, look, this is really, Real bounty hunt work. If I find any chalkies, can I keep them?

Take whatever you want. I don't think anyone's coming back here. When does she only wear black underwear? 20. With a 20, you find extra chalkies. You find extra spicy chalkies. Three more bags. You shuffle around.

You kick the cans in the trash side by side, and you see if there's anything that jumps out to you, that stands out to you beside her personal computing setup. And it looks like any, I mean, it's almost like strangely bare. Like, aside from the, aside from the computer, like she had no kind of worldly goods that she cared for beyond her access to the hypergrid. No photos of anybody, no documentation, nothing on paper.

the only physical items in this room aside from her chair and her setup is just really the trash, just the takeout trash. So she could be gone in an instant and it would just be garbage left on. Exactly right. Damn. Do I feel like her terminal, her personal computer is worth anything? Or is it like part of the arcade that we're in? She certainly had built what at this point of quits, to kind of like a power monitor setup.

Yeah. And you would understand that to be relatively, relatively valuable for sure. So it's nice technology. It is nice technology. Whether or not you could, you feel as if you could like disconnect it and take it with you, you think that's,

that would take quite some time. As long as you're stuck in my head forever. Yeah, it is. I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm too distracted by everything. that's going on. I don't think to take it. Yeah, Ziggy, I didn't really find anything of value other than, I guess, this old issue of wireless wizard. She seemed to have, like, gaming cheat codes or something.

But it looks like she didn't open this demo disc of DongleGoblin 3, a link cable to the pass. I don't know if that would work on your... Unopened? Yeah, I mean, it looks pretty old. I don't know if it's going to work anymore. Do those things expire? No, they don't expire.

This is really cool. The fact that it's unopened makes it like a collector's item. It's yours now. Hold on to it. I don't think it's a clue or anything. No, I think she kept everything that was important to her on her machine. All right. Let's get back with the rest of them.

Get the fuck away from all these arcade cabinets. It is a surprisingly easy endeavor to get Meg back to the Rhapsody, where you throw her in the brig and soon you leave the world of syncom behind you. Unshure of an exact plan, Rhett is able to head into the ether currents that will take the ship in the direction of

Sorok Dynasty Space and its capital of Crato. You once more find yourselves together in the lounge, having defeated Meg, capturing her, putting her in the brig, ingesting some of her code as well as

well as now understanding Portia Bella's next target, Ziggy's brother, on Credo. Whatever, you've never had this much of a heads up on where Portia Bella is heading before. The best you've been able to get is moments. Something that you've been able to determine from the information is that at this level of preparation, Meg was able to determine that it is about at this stage where she'd strike somewhere in the window of two weeks. Knowing that the navigation has been plugged in and that we're already starting to ride through the ether

in the direction of Crayda, I'll have gone over to the mini fridge, pulled out of Gexota, cracked it, taken a long graft, and presuming that we're all here in the lounge area. Guys, I'm... I'm really sorry for everything that happened. You all were put in danger because of me, because of my lead hacking skills.

Listen, so you don't apologize. It's occupational hazard. I never thought something like this would happen. I had no defenses. Yeah, it wasn't us that got our brains chomped by a giant animatronic gorilla. And any day that I can wake up and do something different, You know, I don't like getting out of bed for the small fries. You know, we were gonna take down Portia Bail anyway,

but now that we know that your family's in danger, we're gonna stop it. And we all even put up with the weirdo in the brig. Yeah, and you guys all put yourselves in danger to rescue me. So, you all get to put me in danger at least once. Well, I really appreciate your support, and I... I don't want anything to happen to my brother. You and I have a complicated relationship, but it's...

not, it's not like he'll eat you die. And then, so if we can make it to Kreda and intercept Porsche and get the reward, I want to do it. Just give him a call. I don't know. Someone's trying to kill you. Yeah, I mean, you certainly got to warn him. And this is our best shot to take Borshebella down and we could really use the payday.

Yeah, we need to get there before the fucking, his guards get to him. What if they collect the battle? I mean, if he's, if he's, if he's this. big hot shot guy, then, then, I mean, can she even, I mean, how she gets to him without taking out a whole lot of people and drawn a lot of attention to herself? I don't know, but she's good at what she does. I've, you know, in my whole career, I've never seen anything quite like it. That's scary. I think we have to assume that she's going to find a way, and I'm hoping that as I, uh, I'll read the rest of, uh, uh, mega, uh, mega, mega destroyers, uh, uh, research that I can, I can, I can maybe find

out a little bit more and work backwards from that. Maybe I can see a pattern that she has. Well, I mean, there's nothing to do until, uh, until we can get there. I guess we're really at the mercy of this, this absolute fucking freak. Which one? The fucking freak.

Which one? In the brig. Oh, okay. Who else? I thought you might be talking about Porsche. I thought you meant Portia Bella. Hermers, we're trying to keep. Well, we got a timeline.

Yeah. To your point, it's been a long while, but I think you're probably right. I should try to get in touch with my brother. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I don't know her means of travel, but she may be close. We're already there. Who the hell knows? I have two questions. One, how are we doing on funds? Hmm. Hmm. GM, how are we doing on funds? I know that we had like a decent amount and we've been like taking it kind of easy yeah a lot of money on the ships but then we had some good things happen our way we have a time skip between the seasons right so like it's certainly it's been months of you

kind of living on that yes right correct I would imagine we're not like I would say you're not like running on E but nobody's retiring anytime soon we're working through our emergency funnel right and we're gonna have to replenish you uh once we get once we get to this you know once we're all together in the common room the common area um i will have poured myself a big pour of whiskey uh and rent would definitely notice that like i'm drinking a little bit more when i do drink i'm poor and pretty heavy pours and uh how then my second question is how far are we like when we're going to crato's uh kreta sorry how How far is that from where we currently are?

Are we putting a lot of distance? Is it a long journey? Are we putting a lot of distance from where we were to where we're going? Or is it actually not that big of a... Sealing in the ether lanes at this point, you think you're probably about 10 to 11 days away from getting there. So it's a hike. You will notice that I'm drinking more heavily than normal,

but I also seem to be relieved that we're taking this long journey to Craita and we're putting some distance between where we were and where we're going. And would it be like... So would it be unusual? What would I think it's unusual? The drinking is unusual. The drinking is definitely unusual. It's more than usual. It's more than usual. And I've been tense. I mean, I was tense at the arcade. I was tense through all of the stuff that was going on.

But you can sense that there's a little bit of tension being relieved as we're putting distance between us and the arcade and where we were. Um, I'll sort of sit down a rough day, huh? Just another day that ends in Y. You good, everything, everything okay? Yeah, yeah, why do you ask? Oh, I don't know, it's just, you know, the equivalent of 2pm on the equivalent of Tuesday, you know, it's just a little early as all. Yeah, no time with the present.

I guess you're right. Enjoy it while we got it. enjoy it while we got it, you know? I'll pour myself. Tell me, I'll talk you off and I'll pour myself another, a glass. This is after I've set up the autopilot. Cheers. Yeah, of course.

And I think Hank would be in there and the autopilot enabled. You're sailing the ether currents. The Rhapsody is certainly on its way towards dynasty space with Crayda in mind. No, I... They're trying to figure out what any of it means what Mega Destroyer was saying about Glup and Quibbley. Or she said that Glup didn't have a paper trail, and he didn't have any kind of records. That doesn't make any fucking sense. No, I mean, it's not the most unusual thing we've ever come across.

I mean, they were bounty hunters, right? I mean, we all have things that we're trying to get away from, you know? Yeah, but like this Gun Hawk agency? Yeah, that's weird. You know, you just think you know a guy. What the hell is a century 2112? Some sort of political destabilization bullshit. I don't know.

I just kind of sympathize for all Portobella in a way, you know. It's not like, Not like she chose for Quibbley to get wrapped up with Glup and, you know, killed by him and all that. No, you're right. I don't blame her one bit. If anybody ever did that to you, I'd do the same thing. Can I overhear this with this video? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

We're just talking. And if you're walking by, absolutely. I would be on the couch. And I will have set the power glove down on the ar, armrest and I'll put my gex, my fresh gex soda between my legs and the condensation will unfortunately seep into the pants of my shorts as I pull my grid boy open and I start to look through the data. And it's as Rhett and Pike are talking about these things that I'm doing a combination search of the hypergrid and starting to use these keywords like Century 2112 and the Gunhock agency

and that sort of thing, and trying to get a little bit more information from what Meg was able to compile. Roll a computer's check and an investigation check. That's going to be a 27 for the computers check, and for the investigation check, just straight, it's going to be a 17. I'm sorry, a 15. You put the power glove down, you unfurl your grid boy, you start to explore. You first kind of crack the information that she's left you purposefully about Portia Bella. You re-review it. And it's so clear the timing, a repeated pattern, the gathering of these materials,

look to build some form of poison. and it's about this point where she usually strikes like clockwork in about two weeks. You know your brother to be on Craida in the temple. And she has not just layout and schematics. But would look even like patrol lines, like tracking guard movement. she has an extremely she has an extremely thought-out plan to get to him, including where she believes he would move

day-to-day, his entire routine. The conclusion is that Meg was able to find what Portia Bella knew and that this is information that this isn't just Meg's schematics and guard routes. This is that she was able to get a sense that this was something that Portia would herself have been able to surface?

Yes, exactly. Portia was able to surface. She effectively followed Portia's trail in how her research went to track your brother as her target. Okay, I'm just listening. So I don't interrupt Pike and Rhett,

but I'm confirming these details and just continuing to dig as I start to put this puzzle together. You do so. I just hope he's got a good security detail as all. I mean, his family's loaded, right? So he'll be fine? Yeah. Yeah, I hope so.

How dangerous can this woman be? I mean, I don't know if a bounty's been able to outrun us for this long. That's fair. Yeah. He may have a lot of security, but not as much as perhaps, you know, like a leader leader. I mean, I haven't talked to him in a while, but, you know, when he was starting to progress in the church more and more and more, he wasn't his wealth that it was getting him there. Yeah, he's still, you know, I have to admit he's a talented guy. And so it would depend on the church and look here.

and I'll turn my screen and the display of the schematics would appear on some of the monitors in the space. Look, I think that this isn't just Meg's information. I think that Portia would have these schematics, these guard rounds. If she has all this information about the security, it could be extremely dangerous. Well, you better fucking war. Have you called him yet? Call your brother. All right.

I'll give a shot. pull my geck soda, take the last sip, crunch it, throw it over my head, it misses the waste bin, and then I will open up the communications app on my grid boy, and I think that it wouldn't be a contact. I think that I would, I guess, would I have a personal line, or do I think that I would have some way to reach my brother by like contacting or, like, contacting where I would guess he would be. I think, yes. I think trying, as you think I should warn my brother,

I have to try and get this information to him. I have to keep him safe. You'd recall that he is a channeler of the harmony. And with such a station in the temple, he's not someone who can actually be directly contacted himself anymore. You wouldn't have a direct line or a phone number to it. You could attempt to reach out towards the temple itself and see if they can connect you through messaging system.

Okay. But that would be the best thing you could attempt to do to get to him. But you would know that even that, even if that was successful, the time that kind of thing would take would be far longer than time you believe you have. Every time he crushes one of those cans and throws it, it's never ended up. give the gecks and it gets everywhere. Yeah, that's a good point. I mean, Hank usually takes care of it, but, you know. Hank shouldn't have to do that.

I don't know. Ziggy, would you mind finishing your soda before you, you know, cast it upon the floor? I thought I was done. There was still some left in there? At least a little bit, dribbles. I didn't notice. Sorry.

I guess what I'll try to do is pull up the, I guess I'll try to pull up what is, I can about the church and try a generic line. Like, yeah, you would, you would find when pulling up, you find the effect of a page that says like, contact us and gives you a generic form to fill out as to what your concern is and a call, and a way to reach you back.

It's a contact form. I just have to put in my information and wait for them to call back. If they ever even see this or can, You don't have his phone number? It's been a while, I don't know. Well, what about the rest of your family? Can you call them? I mean, I...

Are they on Craitor with them? I mean, can't get me one of them? I could try calling my sister, but like, I have her number, but I... I've talked to my parents, you know, it's been a long time ago, and, you know, right, when you guys pick me up, I... I don't think we have time to wait for a contact for him. I'm just going to say it. You need to start calling, folks. I'm just going to fill out the form real quick. Well, fine, fine.

You don't have a way to contact your brother? We haven't talked a long time. You guys like care about each other? You can't just ask people that. I haven't talked to them in a while. I don't know what number to use. Is he good people, Ziggi? He's a lot older than I am.

I don't really... I don't know. He's dedicated his life to the harmony and to helping people. Yeah. You know? All right. We're going to help you no matter what, Zickey. You're not going to lose any siblings while part of this crew. I promise.

Thank you. Yeah, I don't want that either. And it would be... Yeah, thank you. We just have to get to him. I will take a moment and I will use the contact form and I will just say, um, uh, greetings. Uh, it is of the utmost importance that I get in touch with channeler Calicus.

Please have him contact me at this number, at his earliest convenience. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns. Best regards. And then I don't think I would use my real name and I don't think I would use my hacker name. I think that I would have to know. I go to the first name and realizing that they're required fields. It asks for a name to understand who is reaching out and what the their concern is. Zygi Wook. And I will hit enter and send. And that

will fly through the hyper grid off to... The contact form for Ziggy Woug goes out to the temple with a message beseeching Chandler Calicos to contact you at the number attached.

You've sent it. You've attempted to extend that level of communication to him. I then will... All right. All right, I'm gonna... I want to give my sis a call.

Let's just try it, and she might be able to get in touch with them. I have no idea if they're still in touch, and then his life's in danger. Oh, she just walk over to him and tell him. I will pull one side of my grid boy up to my ear, and I will... If I have the digits, I will try to get in touch with my sister. You have a number for your sister.

you find her contact, you dial. And the second the line starts to bing, you get that kind of like a pressure in your stomach in your chest until you hear the call going through bobo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo. Until you hear, hello. And it's almost for a moment, that your heart skips a beat as you think you've connected to your sister.

Until you hear, you've reached the office of Magistrate Chali. How can I direct your call? Oh, the office. Yeah, hi. Yeah, hi. I'm trying to get in touch with Magistrate Chali. Is she in? May ask who's calling?

This is her brother. Ziggy, uh, Woog? I'm sorry, the magistrate is busy at the moment. Can I take a message? Can you ask her to, uh, I'm gonna send through some digits, and can you ask her to call me back as soon as, as possible? Please, please have her call me. I'll pass on your message.

Thank you. Have a great day. Oh, yeah, you too. And the line disconnects. So she's gonna call you then? I presuming that they they give them

the message I yeah she seems that she's really busy oh she was always like that she was always just doing everything

all the time I mean can't call anybody else this is a fucking emergency you're right you're right you're right

you're right you're right I'm gonna must be real busy ah anyone who seeks a position of authority it's gonna be that

fucking I mean, everyone in my family's got real, you know, positions of authority. It's... Look, I don't really want to call my folks. You know, after we visited the bank, they... You tell everybody about that. Tell about what? No.

I do remember that, Ziggy. Yes, of course. It was totally unrelated to our present conversation. Something happened earlier today that... referring to. Oh, okay. My eyes just narrowed at right. That's not it. I say, no. No, you have to understand. The reason why I don't want to call my parents is because they, they're really wealthy.

I mean, I mean, I, I know that we've seen some, some rich folks, you know, in our, our travels and, and like Ophelia's parents, right? But when I say wealthy, this is on a different. level, all right? Wait, are you trying to say that they've got more money than Mama Callos? I grew up in that. Yeah. Huh. And I, when we went and had to put the Rhapsody, you know, as collateral, in order to get everything that we needed to get the ships and all that.

Yeah? I tried to ask for a loan. Because I had access to those funds. It's how I built my rig and lived, you know, outside of the... off the grid for such a long period of time. This is, you know, something I always had access to, and when we went to the bank, they cut me off. The bank cut you off?

No, my parents. Oh. They pulled my name from all my trust funds and from the cards that we have access to and different accounts, and because it was all, you know, verified, they wouldn't give me the loan. That's horrible, Ziggy, I'm so sorry.

I mean, no, it's a good thing. I mean, that kind of money turns you to a fucking... A fucking demon. No, no, I get that. It's good. You're building character like that. But to just be floating through the vast expanses of space and find out that your family would rather cut you off than make sure no matter what you had safety.

No offense, Ziggy. But that's horrible. I mean, that's kind of fucked up. That's really fucked up. I mean, when you're that rich, I mean, are you even thinking? That makes me want to punch your mom in a snow fence, Ziggy. It's all right. I feel fucked up.

Look, kid, I know you're a bit down in the dumps about this, but Coe's right. Now, you're a real bounty hunter. Yeah. That's true. You wouldn't be here if you had all that fucking money to fall back on. Look at all the stuff that you've done poor. Yeah, like look, we're poor. Like, we're not great at our jobs.

in our jobs. We're struggling to really make it in this career. And we're like, sometimes we go hungry. Sometimes we go on boozed and unsauced. Yep. And life sucks sometimes. And there's a room with a slime in it. But it builds fucking characters.

Ziggy? Look, I I really love all the time we spend together and and this purpose that I have with all of you and everything. I don't miss. I don't miss the I miss your money and I never even had it.

There was a lot of money. But look, I don't really, I gotta, I, I, I, I just don't want to have to talk about that, but I have to call them and if there's a chance it'll save my brother, I just don't want to, I just don't want to, I'd rather, you know, maybe I call them and I get like a voicemail and that's all I need to do, you know, but like, they've always been really, they've, they've, they've, They have high expectations for me. If I call, I'm just going to get an earful. I know it's not much, but I can, I could play you a little song to calm your emotions a bit, make you feel less anxious, and then whatever they do or don't do, maybe it won't affect you so much. I think that'll help a lot, actually. That would be really nice. Thank you, Picks. Yeah. I turn my guitar around.

It's just another equivalent of Monday I wish it were the equivalent a Sunday because that's my fun day my I don't got a run day but it's just another equivalent a Monday and then I cast common motions on day Hell yeah I'm kind of bummed out now

I feel a stillness from this song It's a bob, and I'm dancing along and smiling on the exterior, but on the inside, the magic washes over me, and I am able to summon some courage. And so if I can, I would like to make a direct line call to Ma and Paw Woo. And I'll come over and I'll just grab Ziggy's hands with both of mine, and I'll hold on to one of his hands, which everyone isn't holding out of the phone. All right, thanks. And that's a number you do have, Ziggy. You call your parents.

The line never rings. In fact, there's about three seconds of silence before you hear an automated voice. This is a recording. The ambassadors are sequestered on Mavros and cannot be reached. The line instantly disconnects. Hey, hey, hey, mom and dad. Hi, I just leaving a voicemail.

I, uh, um, I need to get in touch with you and let you know that, uh, uh, Cal, he's in trouble. And, uh, we need to get in touch with him and let him know that he needs to up his security. All right, uh, talk to you soon. Bye. Had to leave a voicemail. Hey, it's better than nothing. Yeah, hopefully they'll get back to you soon. Yeah. He did great, six.

Thanks. Well, at least that's over now, right? I mean, you left two messages. And you sent off that one message, that really long message that you typed out to your brother. Yeah, three-pronged attack! Yeah, it's gotta work! And we just, that's a little more than a week and we'll be there. And, you know, you guys can see, you know, one of our, the, you can say,

Creighta, and it'll be great. Well, we'll be able to, I can show you some places, some food. I've been there tons of times. Though outwardly, what you tell them is positive, a feeling creeps up within you. Something you can't help but acknowledge internally. No one is coming to help you. No one is coming to save you. I mean, it's a good thing we're on our way, you know, in case our three-pronged attack doesn't work.

Well, we'll be there, and hopefully we can take out Portia Bella before anything happens and collect the reward. No harm to your brother. Maybe you can say hi if you want to, or you know what, if you want to, to pretend they don't fucking exist and this is just about it. But warn him. Thanks, everyone. I know that if, if, if my warning leads to Portia's arrest or something like that, that that means no bounty.

And we're, you know, not, you know, waiting through funds right now. But I really, thanks for giving me the support to do that. That's really nice. Well, you know, Ziggs, the best thing about always being poor is that as long as you stay poor, then the money doesn't really matter. Yeah. And family comes with four notes anyway. Right, guys? Yeah.

Exactly right. And you don't really know what you're missing out on. Exactly. Although I guess he definitely knows what he's missing out. Yeah. And I mean, I think that you might be the only one of us that has any family left. I, thanks. Thanks, Go.

Uh, yeah. I mean, I sort of think of this is like, you know, our own little family, you know? That's why I'm so happy we go on our adventures and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, you know, we're pretty good at justice. Let's, let's, let's, let's, you know, my brother before it's too late, all right? I'm sure before that we'll get, like, a call back or a response from the forum or, or, or whatever. Tides, you know, how closely do they check? Records for visitors to create it.

And do you know? Oh, I mean, it's the, sort of like the capital world of the entire Thorek Dynasty. It would be the most robust check you can find in a given world. Think that'll be a problem? Yes, yes, I do, read. Yeah, what, uh, how well can you scrub said records? at least to clean it up a little bit, you know, given that Pike spent six months in an imperial prison, you know, my contacts with Graf, I definitely took a fair few contracts with the Cavalon Empire during my time at Grimco.

Given the connections, I don't want them thinking that we're some kind of agents, you know, or otherwise. I've always wanted to ask this and now feels like the time, do you guys have matching prison to have? tattoos. What? Us? Yeah. You've been in prison, too? Rett's never been to prison as far as I know.

You're not the one that was in prison? No, I know. I've never been to... That makes so much more sense. That's why you like you listen to me any of the time that I was selling you prison stories. That's how I met Coe. Yeah, that's how we met. I've been to prison a couple times.

I thought that's how you met Rhett. Oh. No, no. I've no him for a long time. He was just in prison, you know, a year ago. The number of times. I had to listen to stories about Xyler Krasz I thought we were sharing our told you like a dozen more prison stories you were you listening to anything I was

saying I'm not anymore but I'm with them a lot of drugs co yeah okay that's fair yeah you were you were blazed that you were blitz out of your fucking mind I should have picked that's my fault yeah I should have picked better time to tell you prison stories you should have because now that I'm not On as many drugs, any drugs, I am building memories now. Yeah. I try to get Pike to get a tattoo, but he said everyone would think that he was my bitch, and that would be humiliating.

That's definitely something that I would say. But I, well, I mean, I'm just going to be honest here, anytime we go into a place, I think everyone thinks we're all, that you're all of our bitch. Yeah, I don't know. Well, we're all your bitch. I don't know. I know how it works.

I think that's probably what you meant. But instead of getting tattoos, we just beat the shit out of everybody. And they didn't fuck with us after that. So you don't have matching tattoos? No. We could get them. And you don't have matching tattoos? No.

No. That's not really... Well, no. And I mean, and the only one who was doing tattoos at that time that wasn't our mortal enemy was Philly, and he had a real... He had the shakes. You told me about this person? Yeah, we tried to teach Pinky how to do tattoos, and I think I think that's... and I think somebody got infection and died.

So it was a bad fucking time. Janick, it was, it was a rough fucking prison. Let me tell you. The only thing he was good at was tracing scatterplots. Exactly right. Exactly right. I think prison sounds like a lot of fun. No, it's not.

Okay, no, we can't go back to. No, I'm never fucking going back ever. I'm never going back there. I'm never going back. Well, see the one that was good at making them radiator grilled cheeses? Oh, God. That's delicious. They were actually really fucking good.

Oh, do you still know how to make them? I mean, you know, no one could make him like Philly. No one could make him like Phileum. You know what? At least was Philean still alive the last time you saw him? No, last like cold pinky, he didn't make him. Oh, no. The catacoolness.

He made, he made. He didn't, Philly didn't make it. No, no. Shame. Last like cold, you know, Pinky made it out. We should at some point try to reconnect with Pinky. with Pinky. I think he's out. Does Pinky know how to make? He's the one with the... No, no,

that was Phileo. No, no. That was, yeah. Yes, I'm not forming memories like I thought it was. No, Pinky was just really big. So he would just stand there and he followed directions okay. Okay. Yeah. So, you know,

he could just stand behind us. He was actually a real sweet guy, though. All he did was stand behind you? I mean, you know, if we needed him to twist some arms, he'd do it. Sounds like a great gig. I'm just to stand behind him guy. I mean, he was like maybe, he's probably like half a ton on you at least. Half a ton of what?

Of weight. Oh. He was a big fucking ugly Rangor motherfucker. Really? I like him. Yeah, I mean, remember that time, I mean, I think he got put into solitary for a long time. He was for us. He could fight like hell. Yeah, I felt real bad.

Yeah. You got thrown in the hole. Do you think I'd do well in prison? No, not at all. How come? Because you're easily persuaded by offers of drugs. No, I'm not. I'm not.

You're in prison, you know. Yeah, given the change... Given a change of circumstance. This point, who knows? That guy's definitely done time. Hope he's doing okay after what he witnessed. Hopefully he's talking to someone about it. I'm gonna grab another drink.

Anybody want anything? Yeah. Go? Yeah. Yeah, I'll take one. Oh, I'll have another soda, yeah. Wret? Yeah.

Cowboy? You know what? Fuck it. Why not? Got you. Thanks, buddy. That's your question. To answer your question.

Please. I've been a gridrunner for some time, and I use my hacker alias to create an identity online. And I vaguely recall inferring that, I could, you know, manipulate records of public record. But I, with it being a record, like a prison record, being on Pike's identity, do I think that I have the know-how to go that far to be able to obfuscate our real backgrounds to this to this O'Rock-Dine?

You have been a Gruburner for some time. And you even have dabbled in things like that, obfuscating backgrounds, changing identities, creating false personas. But you know that this is one of the heaviest levels of security scrutiny in terms of approaching a planet. As you said, CRETA is the seat of the Sorok Dynasty. And this isn't just scrot. some background on the hypergrid. This is reestablishing protocols for the Rhapsody itself to be determined as a neutral vessel without ties. That's something that may be given an extreme amount of practice and coding. You may be able to come to someday on your own,

but this is something you absolutely do not believe you could do without help. Oh. To answer, Rhett, the scans that will be under are going to be pretty intense and really thorough. Can you grab me Dr. Pepper out of there? Thanks. No. I'm going to try my best. You know, but because of the record that Pike has, there's no guarantee that I can, you know, wash that away, you know, If only we had someone else who was like the, you know, Thomas Link of hacking and was really experienced with research and digging into data and manipulating that data. If ever someone else like that, you know, at my side, then, you know, that might be able to help out and help out.

What about Megan? That's a great idea. Was that the wrong answer? No, no. It just seems like a roundabout way of a... asking for permission, but whatever you need to do, she'll help you. And you don't need to change too much. I know the guild offers protection, but given that this is crater, I'd be asking the same thing if we were going to fucking Utham. You know, I'm just a little nervous. Don't do too much, but, you know, maybe just swap all the Cavalon references to the Solar Federation.

That's where I spent the majority of my career, so I don't think it'd be that much of a leap or suspicious. All right. Well, we'll get into the hypergrid and we'll try to, you know, make that universal so that when they, when they see the ship and they, they ask for our information, it'll look a little more mundane. Just don't let her out of the break, okay? I'm not going to let her out of the break, and I, I don't plan on giving her power glove back. I don't want to see her, you know, silica eviscerate all of you, and as, and she takes over the ship and traps me and her.

Can you give her this bag? I picked all this stuff up when I was getting the chalkies. It's just a bunch of a black underwear. Okay. Now's a good time to bring up rule number one when dealing with prisoners. Don't get close enough for them to grab you through the bars. If you're going to give her that, you put it on the line and you kick it over. Yeah, you might need to just take them out and throw them in there.

Because that's my bag. I want it back. That's a big. Ziggy, remember, if you need a little torture, you know where to find me. All right. I don't think that'll be necessary. It might. You have 10 or 11 days.

I think I can get it done that time, and I got all this other code that she left me to unzip. And unpack. The, you know, there's some cool stuff in here that I needed to, like, actually decrypt. All right, well, you know, whatever you need, just have it ready if you can by the time we enter Crateus orbit. I'll let you know how it's going,

and if it looks like it might be impossible, and I'll let you know that too. Thank you. I appreciate you, Ziggy. And I'm proud of you, for everything you've accomplished and for your skills. Thanks. I'm proud of you, too.

And I'm sure you're focused. and be mighty proud as well. I'm gonna go, uh, yeah, I'm gonna get started right away. All right. Don't forget my holographic rainbow bag of Megan's underwear. I got it. As soon as Ziggy leaves, I walk away.

You walk away. Ziggi's gone. Guys, I'm worried about Zingy. How come? He seems, he seems a little confused. He seems a little, he's the most loss I've ever seen him. seen him. Well, you know, his new game doesn't come out for another couple of months. I think he's just bored. He heard him say it himself. It's been a weird couple of days, especially for him.

Yeah, I mean, the fact that his brother might die. If we fuck this up... We can't let that happen. He's never going to forgive us. You know that right? You know what the weird thing is? He's gone. Yeah, yeah. He's carrying that bag downstairs. I don't think you'd blame us if anything goes wrong. He's not that kind of person. I don't think it would be his fault. But I think we'd blame us, and so we gotta make sure it doesn't happen.

Look, I didn't want to say anything while Ziggy was around, you know, to scare him, but there's a real fucking chance she succeeds. I know. And, and, I mean, how many fucking corpses have we found in her wake? She's got a head start on us. She clearly has access to his, you know, information on his security. She has a plan?

She has a plan. Oh, shit, he's back. That was quick. Wow. No, that didn't. Just kidding. So, no, I know. This is real fucking serious. Let's just not address that.

I, you know, we all need to stay focused and we're going to do our best to save the guy. Is there a chance that this Megan person is working with Portia Bella and that just feeding us all of this information to give us false information and we're playing right into a hand? Yeah, there's always a chance, but we've seen types like this before. That's not really their MO. Yeah, I just thought about it and got scared for a while. Anything's possible and you should always think about that. Trying to be a better bounty hunter. And that means I gotta think about stuff.

You're doing a great job. Yeah, it hurts a lot. No. But... Thinking's hard. I mean, I didn't want to scare Ziggy either, but like, I mean, she hasn't failed yet. Exactly right. We've been chasing her for months.

Wow. She also hasn't crossed our paths yet. But also, to be fair, Yeah, we've been chasing it for months while also kind of dealing with a lot of big stars. It's not like she's been off sole focus, and now that she is, she better watch out, because I'm learning to punch. That's the attitude. I'm excited about this one. Yeah, me too. And there were stakes on the line, and not the food kind.

I just, even, I don't think there's going to be any way that if we fuck this up, that Ziki doesn't blame us for the rest of his life. He's not like that. He would blame himself, not us. Yeah, I don't know why you think he would. We're doing what we can. It's not our fault that his families is cut off. Because we could always do more.

Sure. That's true for anything. Anyone. If we fail, how could he not hate us? Coe, I think you might be projecting. What? What does that mean? We talked about this. We have not talked about it. I don't even know what projecting means.

You're feeling emotions. This is how you would feel in the situation. No, I think that's exactly how Ziggy would feel. No, Coe, you're throwing your emotions onto Ziggy. No, I am not. Zicky would hate us forever because we always could do more. This is how you just situation calls. He has one angry bone in his body.

When he's not playing a little. his fidgy games. Okay, I was going to say when he plays Yeah, yeah, yeah, I had to. I don't know what the fuck jungle diff means, but Me either. Yeah, what the fuck? Too real, too real. Fine.

Maybe he won't. I don't fucking know. Sorry. I'm sorry. Do I need to sing the equivalent a Monday song to you? I know. He was beautiful picks. All right. But I got it. I know. I trust.

you've been doing so much better with managing your emotions on your own. Why don't I make us some Squallsberry bleach steak for dinner? How does that sound? Is it because we mentioned steak? Yeah, it's true. I'm not feeling some squalzeges. We would have fucking devoid. I fucking love Squalzbury please steak.

Wait, do we have the money for Squalsberry bleat? It's not like we're out of money, right? We're not poor. But it's just, you know, she keeps evading us for another half a year. Then we'll be poor. And then we have to go after the small fries and I'll be pissed. If we're not poor. And distract us and take time away from hunting her down.

Are we the equivalent of the middle class? I'd say we're very solidly middle class. Wow. All right. Just lower middle class. Ball game. Get dinner started and we flash over to Ziggy. You were making your way to the break.

I quickly run to my room and crash into the mess that is in my own living space. dropping and losing the bag of panties, unfortunately, which is a nightmare for me. But I am solely focused on finding something that I didn't have on me during the time in the arcade. I immediately run over and grab some sword body spray. And you're fucked. Oh, no, I don't like what is you going.

I'm going to have to excuse my hell. and then I would like to make an investigation check to see if I find the bag again. Oh, to find the bag again? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It fell, it rolled maybe under the bed. Okay, all right, roll an investigation check to see if you can find Megan's underwear in your room. 17. 17.

When you walked in, you placed it on the edge of your bed, but in the scuffle of you kicking cans and bags and burrito wrappers and cheese curly containers. and had fallen off your bed and bounced under it. But with a quick search in a panic, after applying your sword body spray, you were able to locate Pixel's bag of Megan's collection of underwear. I'd grab the clutch, I grabbed the power glove, and then I make my way to the break.

And I think Pixel would have explained to Ziggy that any girl's girl knows that when you're in direct, a clean pair of underwear is the only way to calm yourself down. Oh, okay, exactly right. And Ziggy's the man to deliver that. And Ziggy's the man to deliver that. That makes perfect sense. You make your way towards the brick.

Nightmare. You enter and you start walking up towards the cell. Before you even turn to see her, you really start to get line of sight into it. You see a motion against the bar of her tail moving slowly, moving slowly back and forth against it. And when you finally make your way up, and you can see the... The Hannibal Lecter shot.

She's sitting. She's sitting with her back to the bars. Okay. With the tail moving against it slowly. I was wondering how long it would be before you would come see me. I know, I know it's not the best in there. I've been in worse places. Much worse places.

she'll stand up and turn around and look at you. I look, first thing first. Is that a bag of my underwear? I don't know what's inside this bag. I just throw it. I just toss it as quickly

as I can. Not even in the cell just in a wild direction. What? You throw it right? Yeah. Like a shotgun blast of padding in all directions. If I can't, I would like to try to aim it through the bars. I might not be able to do that, but I would like to try to toss,

and I don't remember that Pike suggested to kick it. Roll an athletics or acrobatics check to see if you can get it through the bars. I'm not proficient in either, but I shockingly get a 19. Wow. It's a 21. Maybe, oh my gosh, the 21. I said the DC pretty high. Shockingly,

the panic takes all of your body and you fit and you sore it, and it goes straight through the bars is the bad. hits the ground, the bag that Pixel asked you to return to her, hits the ground as her black panties spread across the floor of the cell. Listen, I don't want to talk about that. It's, it, uh, Pixis gave it to me. I don't know how she got it and I don't, you just, you know, you do whatever you need to do with those. Your friend Pixel gave you a bag of all of my underwear? I think she took him from your root. Okay. I'm just saying I She said that you

You probably Want him? It's actually really thoughtful of her I mean in a situation like this everyone knows that the only thing you want is a clean pair of underwear All right That's great Listen I

I want to start by saying skill recognizes skill You've done you've done a did some amazing stuff. And I have no idea how you manipulate hard light like that. It's a really cool thing, okay? I'm going to start there. Well, thank you, Zicke. You know, I've always had a strong connection to the hypergrid.

Like it was speaking to me in lines of code that only I could read or hear or understand. People didn't get that, you know? For a long time, people didn't get that. And then I found you. And I knew in you I found somebody who would understand, who could get it, who could speak my language. Like other people. I love the hypergrid. I'm right there with you. I... sometimes people can be kind of annoying. I know.

Yeah. They can. Why did you come down here, Ziggy? Well... Well, I wanted to, I wanted to ask for your help, all right? I, I, I, if we can just put everything on the shelf, everything that's happened, I, I think that you might be able to help me with a coding thing. And if you did, then that would be pretty nice. And you could, you'd get some points with the rest of the crew, you know. A coding thing?

Did you bring a pad for me? I'm not going to give you technology. right now. If you have your power glove, then I don't want to, you know, endanger my friends again. And I, you know, there's still, you know, a little bit not so much trust here. You were, you did, you know, some crazy, crazy stuff. All right, Meg? I was anxious to bring you in. I was anxious to, to meet you. I, I had to know you. I had to experience your code for myself. And I, I know. I get these, I get these moments.

I lose time when I, when I find myself again out of the hypergrid. Well, I'm glad you're here, Ziggy. I'm really flattered. I'm thrilled you like my code and, and, and, and I'm proud of it. It feels good to hear that. I've never seen anything like it. But I'm, I'm hoping we can just put all that on the shelf and just focus on, solve some problems. Because I love the hypergrid.

I get that. I'm right there with you. I love it more than Bedith loves Kara from Heart Sink High. Oh. You remember the first episode? They tell each other they love each other, but then they can't make it work

because they're galactic cross lovers. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then... Oh, that episode's so good. And the cliffhanger at the end. Oh, when you think maybe his soul is fallen, but then it secretly he gets it back, but he acts like it's gone.

I know, and then you know. He feels like it's going to be better for her because, oh, look. So good. I need to help modify some records. So I just thought I'd sit here and I'll type and you can just watch. And if you see me, you know, miss something or I ask you some questions, we can just talk it through, all right? That's how I think this might work. Modified records for what?

Well, we're going to go to Craita and we're going to try to save my brother and we're going to try to stop Portiabella. and we need to make sure that everybody looks, you know, cool when we get into orbit so that, you know, the security doesn't, like, you know, think anything suspicious. Not that anyone would, but there are a few little, little tiny modifications I want to make. You want to forge galactic handshake ship protocols to enter Krasa? Do you think that you could help with that?

Of course I can help with that. I mean, that's it. It'll be more difficult driving through you, but I can walk you through it. I'm going to scoot a chair up and sit down. and open up my grid boy and turn it a little bit. All right, these are the records.

We're gonna try to change all of the records, Imperial and Cavalon and then switching it over to the Solar Federation, all right? She sits down. I try to stay out of arms, right? Presumably, you stay without a bit. She doesn't have terribly long arms either. And she doesn't move, she doesn't give you any kind of threatening motion,

moving to the bars, anything like that. If anything, you move the chair and we'll say you go, you almost both turn parallel to each other and you have the chair as if your side is facing her cell and she sits against the wall as her side is facing out of the cell and you look at this screen together and you sit closely, but not within arms reach. Or tail-toeat, tails reach.

Or within tails reach. And I would just start to walk through the steps of doing that and if she's helping me back and forth, I don't know how long this is gonna take. So you tell me if we are able to correct the code. Let's roll a joint. Computers check, you and I. Natural 20.

Oh, what? Yeah. One gazillion, so I get a 28. 24. It takes time. time. She walks you through building a script, not to build the process all at once, but to build it into loops. You have to automate certain approaches so that as the handshakes occur, they will attempt to divert multiple times how to find the correct identification of the ship, and you have to

anticipate every move. You have to build almost a living algorithm to outmaneuver the security measures of the checks that will occur on Craita. You're probably down here. You lose all sight of the time as you're talking to her, and you're both coding her in her mind and you on the grid boy. You lose probably what equates to almost 11 hours in the process of doing this. Yeah, we disappear. You don't even notice it by the time it's done.

But you understand. that once complete, you know intuitively that this script code is exactly what you would need to handshake the correct authentications on the approach to crater. Thank you. I don't know. That was amazing. Yeah, I think we got it. Look. I think that this is going to be, it would fool anyone.

That'll get you through. Those beautiful keystroke work. Well, thank you. I appreciated your guidance. The boy knows how to stroke. I, uh, uh, I look up and down the hallway, and I make a few more keycestrow commands.

And the favorite, the most common of the trash that I saw in her den, whatever her favorite snack is, I'll quickly... The cheese curleys. The cheese squiggles, squiggles. The cheese squiggles. The cheese squiggles. The cheese squiggles.

I'll do that. And within her cell, the hypergrade will open up. And from the panels, a handful of snacks will drop down. I got to go to bed. But you know, enjoy some squiggles. I know it's gonna be lonely. Thank you, Ziggy. Thank you.

This, I really loved that. Thank you for the cheese squigglys. And tell your friend Pixel, thanks for the underwear. I'll let her know. Bye. Bye. I go. You spend the rest of the time traveling towards Craya Zigi, you present this newly coded security authorization key to RET.

You know now that your trip when you arrive at Kreda, everything will go according to plan to make Planet Fall. And that's, we'll take a break. You had spent several hours with Meg developing this script, this code, to reauthorize and obscure the past of the Rhapsody and ensure that it'll pass. Dynasty security protocols upon arrival. You are confident, but this is still a big moment. You've now been traveling through the ether lanes for about 10 days, and you find yourselves approaching CREDA. Can I just say also that during those 10 days,

maybe I wouldn't have found time with this writing the code and doing all of that. It's up to your discretion, of course. But could I have also decrypted the remaining code left on the drive by Meg? Oh, yes. Yes, thank you. The lines of code left specifically for you by Meg to be decrypted. You have gained a list of new spells. I'll give you two of them here.

I wondered if it was spellbook like. Oh, what? I want something. What? I am. You got a whole bunch of stuff. You got magic item on you. What?

You keep that thing on you. You got so many things. Just kidding. No, but seriously, I know where you're parked. My head is broken. I just tried to swipe across this page. No way. No joke.

I just, because I'm over here like resetting. So we've had a long rest and I go to swipe and I'm like, you down ass. And you all would have enjoyed obviously a long That's what I was doing, because I'm going to erase all this shit. Yeah, I got to. You may, I know that the events of the battle with Mega Destroyer were particularly damaging. Oh, thank you.

You may all enjoy along. I got my ass kicked. I didn't do this for any other Neon Odyssey campaign character sheet, but I made sure to keep my Pike one pristine and I've been using scrap paper. And so like, that's awesome, man. That's awesome. I love that. I need to just reprint mine out.

Oh, my, I'm sort of like what I should have been in a certain one. Brian is that's very cool. Alien language. I have things, I have the word throwender up here, humbly gifted Starship. She wants to C++ your Python, Forest Woman work. C plus plus your Python is fucking brilliant. That's very funny.

See, that's really good for non-coders, but you could have also said she just wants to see your Python. Right. Because C is also a language, but because you add a plus plus, it makes it into like your everybody knows what you're talking about. Yeah. That is brilliant. Thank you. God damn.

And then I spilled something questionable all over my... Yeah, me too, on Burger Sheet. You have, uh, did anybody else want to do something just or say that they've done something in the last 10 days? Just drink heavily. You drink heavily. Everybody else prepares for the next leg of this adventure. You approach Crata and see an enormous planet of greens and blues with a glittering

crystalline moon in its orbit. The beauty is offset by the realization that what appears to be an entire fleet of warships seem to be surrounding the world, like great space-faring pyramids fully equipped with the most advanced gem tech of the galaxy. As you approach, a flashing message appears on your console and a voice over the comm system demands identification of all hands and the ships manifest. All right, Ziggy, go ahead. Send it over.

I will put a few key commands into my computer and then turn back around my back, facing Rhett as he's at the helm. I think I've done it. As soon as they interface with us, they'll suspect nothing at all. Fingers cross. And presumably we're either keeping those rolls

or you're going to ask me a roll again, however you want to do it? I will have... Ziggi roll a deception check. Or, right. Whoever, I think either one of you makes sense here. If I can grant, I don't know what your deception is, but if I can grant you an advantage, it's probably better than Ziggy's ability

to not wear his heart on his sleeve. Unlikely. Plus zero currently. Oh, wow. Maybe I am better. 12. We got this. We got this.

Wait. You presenting these. you're confident in the credentials. You can't help. You feel this as well. Anybody who's in this section of the ship currently looking out the windows, you are surrounded or you face a fleet of some of the most terrifying battle cruisers in all of the galaxy.

May I use Function Patch to improve the role by 1D4? Say that I like energize my business? Four. 16. That's pretty fucking bad. That's better. Hell yeah. That's better. Hell yeah.

Hypercoters, everybody. Oh, man. Oh, man, that's cool. Yeah. The warships in front of you, barring the way, Ziggi, you would even know to think that this is slightly unusual. This is a level of almost militaristic defense that is not standard on approach. here. You push forward a couple of keystrokes and even as you submit the hacked security clearance,

once more you rerun the script to ensure everything and you clean it just one or two lines of code just at the very end a missed a bit and you you straighten it out and you submit. All right. Wow. The checks go through, the security clearance scans, there is a long pause while this is happening. You're staring down the warships the entire time as you're hoping that this coding that you worked on with Meg is exactly what's needed to get you through. The other option is almost entirely, is almost insuredly obliteration. Mm-hmm. until eventually

you get the green light. Security clearance passed. Good job. The history of the Rhapsody dealing with simply the Solar Federation with no ties to the Kavala Empire is cleared to enter Sarak Dynasty space

and you approach Kreda. Now entering the atmosphere, you make it past the blockade and descend into the atmosphere. And soon beautiful blue skies stretch as far as you can see over the countless miles of vibrant jungles below you. As you make your way to the city of Zalekin, as you approach and your altitude lowers, most of you are awestruck by the gorgeous view. Enormous saropods roam stretches of verdant plains and valleys, grazing at the highest bows of primordial

trees. Groups of other dinosaurs of all shapes and sizes roam on their migration paths for better grazing. Finally, in the distance, you see what at first looks like an enormous mountain, but then rising out of the natural landscape, you see a stunningly beautiful city of stone, crystal, and technology that seems to live in perfect balance with the world around it. You approach the spaceport of Zalekin and see crystal clear waters of a river running through the city which drops off a cliff face down a waterfall to the jungles below. As you land you see a sprawling metropolis with structures both great and small and toward the city center you see an enormous multi-tiered temple adorned with monoliths of cars.

Harmonite. It's weird to be back. How long has it been? Four or five years? Honestly. We used to come back and forth here all the time. We would sort of, you know, summer here every once in a while. My parents would move back and forth through all kinds of worlds and stuff, but...

And not too far from here is a pretty nice little chateau. I don't want to go there. We're not going there, but, you know, a nice little spot that you could call the woo. And we think he's gonna be here. I, we're gonna have to check all the churches, but if he's anywhere and I imagine that he would be pretty high up by now, given who he is and his talents, he's probably in the church in Zalekan,

as I had to guess, and they would know. There's probably that giant temple right there. If I had to guess. That's the one. Well, let's, uh, Have you got, by the way, have you heard back from your family at all? No, I never got a... Did I ever get a message back?

It's been, no. It's been just shy of two weeks. So my sis didn't return my, my, my memo. You've not heard back from the magistrate. And my contact form went to, was left on red. Your contact form, uh, red or unred, you're unsure, but there's been no ability to reach out. There's been no attempt to reach out to you. Derek, Derek does the same.

And then you were never able to connect with your parents. Yeah. Yeah. I don't think I would have tried again. Well, we shouldn't waste a single moment. If there's any chance that we beat Porsche here, we got to move quick. Yeah, I mean, once we go and tell your brother that he's coming, then he'll fucking triple quadruple the security, and she'll never stand a chance.

All her plans will be for fucking nothing. There's... Yeah, I think that once they know it's coming, and we... We can invert it. Easy, easy. Maybe even... Maybe even have a time enough to set a trap.

And because we came in person, hopefully they understand how serious we are, and then we're not joking around. So, I think maybe you should lead the way to the temple, and, uh... Yeah. You know, we'll just... Be behind you. I've never been to Craitas so yeah, I don't know. Make sure we don't commit any

taboos that'll get us thrown into prison and I've got everything I need. I highly recommend everyone dress light It's a little human. I'll be okay. All right. I'll I'll um I'll walk everyone to the exit of the Rhapsody and guide everyone down to the city and if I know I mean, obviously we see the temple, and so it's a straight shot. But if I know the best route to take, or if I even know perhaps a route that would be more scenic, even if we're in a rush, I would want to enjoy the nostalgia of being here. It wasn't always a pleasant experience for Ziggy, but that doesn't mean that he didn't love

this city. You direct your friends off the Rhapsody and into the city of the city of Zyggy, but that doesn't mean that he didn't love this city. Alican. You make your way through the streets and see a bustling city where people and dinosaurs move about in harmony, with the great beasts clearly integrated as a critical part of Saurak culture. Although there are many Saurians and to call, people of all kinds live in this community. You're able to flag down a hover carriage pulled by a speedy gallimimus, and you ride through the streets of the city until you arrive at the enormous temple

of the harmony at the city center. The entire time, I am pointing out places to eat. I am pointing out what those many dinosaurs. Oh my God, that. Significance of them. And with the windows down the smells assault your nostrils,

roasted meat, spiced, aromatic floats up into the air as you make this trip. stop here, right? Oh yeah, we're coming back as soon as everything's cool. Okay. Is there any chance that we've ever been here before? I don't think so. I don't think so either. I don't think I've ever been here.

No, I won't. This is, yeah, this is definitely unique and strange. Guys, this is way fucking better than Russet loaf. Yeah. Sterlach sucked. Yeah. You said this was a gallimimis? Yeah, galamimis.

What? This is, this is a little bit an interesting form of transportation. Is it like a carriage of like multiple dinosaurs that are pulling it, like a sled? Is it a multi-minus? It's a multi-mimus. Yeah, absolutely.

It's this, let me, several of them stand in front of this large carriage as they trudge forward moving you through the streets of Zalekin. So it is a cascade of them as they pull you through You pass all these shops, these restaurants, the smells, the sights, the sounds, everything here evoking a time in your past where you would spend some time here, perhaps splitting it elsewhere. But it can't help to bring back memories of your past.

Some very pleasant, happy, racing through the streets to grab delicious treats, food items, meats, meats, There's even, I would say, a street that, like, we have to go to the temple, but I know that two blocks walk and then a left, there's a computer gaming and comic bookstore that I used to spend a ton of time. And I just think about whether or not it's even still open all these years. I'm fantasizing about sharing it with my friends, but I don't mention that as I continue to try to tour guide this. You think about that it might be the equivalent of Friday night.

Marshall. It's definitely if it is also the equivalent of Friday, I'm getting the itch and thinking about maybe I don't have everything on me. Maybe I could have brought another item or two. You, so you're making your way. And just before,

you start to approach the temple, just before you turn to a street that gives you a direct access and these large trees even though this this beautiful place with its stonework it's crystalline its technology all throughout it there's there's almost this this verdantness to it this lutch and this lusciousness this intermixing of beautiful technology mixed with primal surroundings and in the final approach to the temple they almost like these trees rise up parallel to the buildings that create an arching fronds as they connect above you as you're drawn beneath it.

Until finally, you find yourselves in front of the temple. Whoa. And it's like huge, right? It's gigantic. It's absolutely gigantic. I mean, you could see it in your descent. Really at the center of Zalakon, it stands far larger than any other building in this location.

And it is massively wide. and reaches to the skies, but it is huge compared to everything else that surrounded you so far. Given my background and education and the response that everyone's having to, their first visit to CREDA, I imagine that I'm even at this point starting to be like, yeah, the temple was founded and blah, blah, blah, and like doing a little bit more of an informational tour guide experience. But when we see the temple, this is known to me, right? I'm not the one doing the tourist thing and looking up and seeing the fronds

or the trees and stuff. All I'm thinking about is how hard it is to climb up those steps. All right. Pre-exasperation sets in. We might be able to find someone to talk to. Wow. This is beautiful.

Yeah, I've lived in cities my whole life, but no cities like this. I don't even know cities could be like this. The temples to O'Lara that I've been to are nothing like this. It's an ancient city, and it's, you know, obviously they've kept it up. We care a lot about that sort of thing. Nice.

Legacy is really important to Osorian. Well, most of us anyway. All those facts were so interested, and weren't they black? Yeah. I'm glad I got to share that extended history of all of those people that I talked about. You would hit me with facts any time. I'm always interested to learn more. There's a...

He loves facts. Oh, he loves... Oh. I just like to be guided tours. Oh, yeah. We got one of the privacy. Absolutely. The reason I ask is because you would ask me,

you might expect Pike to be like, oh, that's not really his thing. You would not, maybe not notice that Pike was intently listening the entire time. Oh, cool. And actually interested, especially about the temple and the religion and anything that you know about this,

he might not give it off, you know, outwardly, but there's an interest there that you might not expect. I would be just pattering on. going on about how important harmony is to the Tsarach dynasty, to Saurians in general, and talking about the significance of the temple, just, again, probably going down cul-de-sacs

where, like, well, there was this one priest where all of a sudden they needed to change all these trees because, you know, like those kinds of textural details that you would get. Correct me if I'm wrong, but my thought is that even though, you know, Pike worship Salara, a different god, she's still a god of beauty, right? And there would be a real thing.

There would be a respect and an understanding of the beauty of this religion and the love of this religion that I think, like, you know, Alar's not a jealous God, right? Like, I can't imagine. Yeah. So, you know, respect for other gods, I think, is a totally normal thing. Just wait until you see the inside. I can't wait. And all those facts are super cool, but is there a gift shop in there? There might be.

Are there dinosaurs all around, too, like in the temple or the temple? Oh, yeah. There are dinosaurs. They're flying above you, Tarana. even perched on the edges of some of the buildings. It is so commonplace to be walking the streets and see dinosaurs walking freely, intermingled with some of the more normal day-to-day of this city. People riding them, drawing carriages like yourselves, or just existing in parallel with the people of this space. Picks? One of these days?

I'm gonna ride a giant T-Rex. I have no doubt. That was going to be the most metal-fucking thing I've ever done, and I've done a lot of metal-fucking things. Co? Which one is the T-Rex? So not the one with the wings. No.

Unless metal album covers lied to me. Very possible. You know, there are so many dinosaurs. The brochure said there might only be a few of them. The main set. And I'm holding uproo sure that I got the back of the of the California.

Oh, yeah. It's like giant. It unfolds. Yeah, yeah. I'm just reading it because it's interesting to me. And I'm really enjoying this. And Ziggy would have explained

that there isn't like a gift shop the way there might be in a museum, but there absolutely would be a place where you might accept donations that support the temple. But in exchange for like rocks and stuff, and I'm picturing those bins of multicolored. There's definitely natural.

Oh, yes. One million percent. And I imagine, like, when you go, for those who are, like, raised religious, at least Catholic, where there's, like, not a gift shop, but there's, like, the church bookstore. Yeah, yeah. And you're like, okay, that's still kind of fun,

but it's not as exciting. I would absolutely be the equivalent of that. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's why I'm picturing in my mind. Hell, yeah. So you head up. Yeah.

You walk up the, grand steps up to the main public entrance of the temple. And as you enter, you hear the bright but low sound of beautiful musical resonance. It sounds almost like wind chimes. Although many

adherents and observers mill about the temple, their voices don't seem to project or echo across the large halls. Large floating harmonic crystals hum and shed colorful light throughout the various spaces flavoring shades of jays,

an amethyst. As you step through the grand entrance hall, you see a central desk with an attendant typing on a crystalline computer. It's like IMAX in the 2000. You can see straight through at all of the insides. Yeah. You can see the inner workings in the in the crystalline shell. That's gorgeous. Wow. I think that I would ignore the computer. I imagine this is a rare situation where instead of going straight to a terminal, I'd feel comfortable enough with, like, trying to find some kind of a cleric or... There's an attendant working at the...

It's a desk with a crystalline... Oh, and they're on the computer. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. No, I'm in... Misarticulated. Okay, no, no, no, no. Yeah, it's...

Somebody is working it effectively... Like an information desk at the computer. the front of the general entrance to this temple to the harmony. I will run up to this attendant. Hi, hi, hi. You see a to call, a female to call with these brown strands of hair, almost like feathered, pushed back across her face with these kind of like deep amber lines that come down.

And she is robed in a very, a very simple white green robe. Hello, welcome to the Temple of Temple to the Harmony. How can I help you? Yes, I'm trying to, you wouldn't happen to know where Chandler Calicoke is. Calicus? Chandler Calicus, of course, but are you looking,

why do you ask about him? He and I share the same last name. I'm his brother. Ziggy, and I am hoping to get in touch with him right away. If there's any way that you, if he's, if he's making an appearance, or if there's a way to flag him down, message him, that kind of thing. I, I, I, it's actually quite urgent. Ziggy, you said your name was.

Yeah. His brother? Uh-huh. I'm sorry. I can attempt to get a message to him, but he's extremely busy. As a channeler, I mean, he's, he's an, in meetings, and we won't have access to him for some time. I appreciate that, but this is a very serious family matter,

and he will be very upset if you can't get this message through. He'll say, you delayed my brother, oh, that's, if there's any way. Treat it like an emergency. And also, if there's any way I could talk to the person who manages your contact form. Roll a persuasion or deception check at your discretion. Are you trying to intimidate? Oh, or perhaps intimidation. Yeah.

I will persuasion is plus one. Intimidation is plus one. Deception is plus one. So let's just roll the dice. Straight ten. Ten. With a ten. Zigi, I appreciate the urgency of the matter, but he's an extremely important temple business right now.

He's addressing, in fact, this entire week meetings that he cannot miss. I don't want him to miss the meetings. I just, I need to communicate with him and I don't have any other way of getting in touch with him. I swear, you know, if there's anything that you can do, is there, Can I talk to your manager or someone higher up? Is there another channeler here that we might be able to talk to? I'm sorry, Ziggy. All of the channelers are locked away.

They're unreachable. You can't speak with them. I would help you. Believe me, I would help you if I could. If I could bring you peace, if I could offer this to you, I would be happy to connect the two of you. If it wasn't matters of great urgency that he was dealing. with himself, I'm sure he would

split away to talk to you. He just can't do so right in this moment. But I will try my best to get him your message that an urgent family matter has arisen. It's... And that you're here to see him. There's no other way to say that...

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I told you my name's Ziggy. What's your name? Chiamina. Attendant. Chimina? Jamina? Jamina?

Yeah, that's better than what I said. What did you say? I said, Jamina. Jamina's not bad. Jamina's good. Jamina's good. Yeah, okay. Jamina's good with her crystal computer.

Jamina. Yeah. Very funny. Then that's your last one. Hang on. Cogneummoin.com. Check out your name. My name is great.

It's Jamina. I've just told you. Why are you staring at me? I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Jamina's a very pretty name. And I, I, look, Jamina, I'm worried that he's in serious danger. This isn't just wooge family business. And when I say woog, you have to know.

He comes from a really important family. And I'm here to make sure that he gets his information post-haste. So I know that you might not be able to get a message through that. And there might not be a protocol for that. But do you know if he's got? going to be making an appearance anywhere? Is he going to come through the church? Is he, you know, anything that I can do?

Well, he has an extremely important meeting tonight that'll be at the church. Danger, you say? Yeah, yeah. I don't see how he could be in danger. I don't know if you noticed on your approach, but they're at it, we're very well defended, especially now. They're guards all over the place. This church is obviously one of our most sacred sites.

Not just here on Craida, but in the entire dynasty, I know. I know it seems like it's well protected, but I have reason to believe that those defenses might be subverted. And that's why I need to talk to him to make sure that he's taking the right precautions. Well, listen, all of the channelers are in a meeting right now. It's set to end before nightfall, and I don't know what time he'll have in between that and his next duties, but if you'd like, you can try to wait around and see if you can grab him when it's done. I don't know how much time he'll have, but it seems as though you have good intentions.

And I certainly don't want any harm to come to Chandler Calicus. If you'd like, while you wait, you can head into the temple and receive a blessing at attend a ceremony. Maybe my friends will like that. Thank you, Gaminah. It's Jimi, you know. Oh, I'm so sorry. It's very hurtful. We were doing so well. We were doing so well.

I can't help but feel a little disrespectful. I reached into my pocket, I pull out a crumpled note, and I slip it into the donation box. I got to go. I really appreciate your guidance. Make sure that message goes through. Was that just three notes? Well, it's all I have on me. I just... I'll take out my money and I'll take a 20. It's for a good cause. Thank you for your patronage to the temple to the harmony. I appreciate what you do here. It's beautiful.

Well, thank you. Yes, we try to keep balances in all things, but to pay respect to the harmony on Crater, and here especially, thank you. We've never been to Crater before, actually. We're, you know, first time for us. Yeah. Oh.

Well, we haven't, but Ziggy's been, like, on many times, because on account of him living here for a while and stuff. Oh, that makes sense. being brothers with Chandler Calicos. But for the rest of you, your first time? Are you enjoying it? Yeah, it's super pretty. And everyone, he's been really nice so far

and the food smells great. And Cole's gonna ride a T-Rex. I mean, if that's okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean, that's not really disrespectful thing that happens. If that's not disrespectful, I don't get us started in business. As long as that's not the case. That'd be awesome.

I wouldn't, uh, I wouldn't, I certainly wouldn't recommend it. Just for the danger that it could pose to you. Of course, not afraid of danger at all. Coop brings the danger, you know what I mean? Brings the danger. Well, not to you or any of your friends. No, I'm not a threat.

I'm not a threat. You're a threat. No, no, no, no. No, no, I am not. She's just, you know, you're talking. Hold on, hold on, hold on. I'll, like, lean up to the thing. So.

Hello? Okay, I think I got a record. Well, thank you so much. I'm going to go to the Temple bookstore. I'll just take a look around. Enjoy the sites. Receive a blessing. And if you have time, if this is your first time, I heavily recommend you check out the reflection pools in a peaceful moment when you resonate with them. It can reveal things within yourself, you thought maybe dormant, hopefully bringing you closer to balance. Like, Jimmy, I have a question. Um, where in the bookstore? Do you keep the smutty novels? Is it because when I looked in, I didn't see it, the romance section? Oh, we don't sell that sort of thing in, uh, in the temple itself.

Oh, good, because I was going to destroy them all. Oh. For you. That's not something you were looking for outside of the temple. You don't need to be directed. Oh, is there a place that I could make sure to avoid? You head out of here, down the stairs, two rights and a left. Knock on the door over there, okay?

Tell them Jimina sent me? Tell them Jimina sent you. They got what you're looking for. Thanks, food. To make sure everything's... But of course, check out the Temple Bookstore. I will, of course. Oh, the donations help with conservation as well as spiritual matters.

That's awesome. That's wonderful. I'll take out the last bit of notes I have and stick them in there. I love conservation. Thank you. 10% of all proceeds of the bookstore go to that foundation set up by venom injection. Yeah, I'll check it out. I love that guy.

Yeah, I know you're a big fan. Conservation's really important, Co. I have to conservate on all my spells. Yeah, it is important. You're right. That's a fun fact, right? Do you know how you go to a souvenir store and they have like tumbled, polished stones that are just like you can buy? Would it be insane to assume that there are like small chips of harmonite that you could purchase? Because I know that it's like a serious, like Harmonit is a serious thing. I think what you could find is things that are, that look extremely like Harmonite. But are not actually Harmonite?

I think you would not be able to purchase Harmonite itself. That's what I'm asking. That's what I'm asking. But certainly things that are evocative of it. The kind of thing you might go with a souvenir you take away is a representation. of the crystalline harmonite that sits within this temple. Oh, that's very important. That's why it was.

I wasn't sure it was the kind of thing where Harmonite loses its potency and that there might be like crushed like, you know, chips of it, right? That they sell, but if that's not the case, then so be it. That's why I was asking. Certainly things that look like it. Got it. But it's one of their most potent, most revered

natural resources and sources of power. That makes sense. Pike wouldn't know any better. And in the souvenir store, he would absolutely buy one of these thinking that he got like a tiny chip of harmonite. Yeah, and it would look, I think, like almost exactly like the harmonite crystal you've seen in the zenith of the temple as you walk in. Almost like a reflection of that. But you would believe it to be its own small pocket-sized harmonite crystal. Nice.

And I keep it in my jacket pocket. Red. Red. Can we do this? that ceremony thing? I've never done a ceremony in a temple before. Jamina said we could, can we? Can we do it? Do we have time? No, I'm happy to. And we have time to kill, don't we? I think all we can do is wait. Either the message is going to go through and he'll know that I'm here and either

find me or it's best I got. We have got a minute to wait around. You also, so one thing she mentioned is that he was in a meeting with the channelers currently. and that though it would take potentially a while, it was scheduled to end before nightfall. And that is in this temple. So you expect if you hang around, if you don't go anywhere, you might be able to catch him as he comes out

at the chamber hall, the meeting hall. I think we've got a few hours. Jamira said that we're going to just... Jamira. I'm sorry, Jamina, Jamina, right. This is just unbelievable. I'm out of your shot. Get away.

You're out of your shot. You've moved away. You're in the gift shop now. Yeah, we're in the gift shop now. Because we're watching Pike purchase this small stone. Yeah, I think we just sort of give it a few hours, and if that doesn't work, then we try something else. I highly recommend that we try some sort of legitimate means, though.

I wouldn't recommend sneaking around the temple. sure that those security forces are legitimate. Well, I mean, as long as you run into your brother and we get a chance to be like, oh, hey, brother, your lives are dear. Do you think you take us more seriously if we were blessed by the gods? Probably, actually, yeah. So then the ceremony thing is helpful. Yeah, at the very least, I'd like to see it.

I... Even if we don't partake. But some of us could if we want... I mean, if that's... an option I'd like to. I'm just saying I want to see how it all goes down. I didn't think that I would feel this way but now that I'm back here I kind of I kind of think like a moment of connection with the harmony might be just the thing. Yeah. Well before we do that I saw that they had enneutapes here and so I go to the wall there's a hanging

headphone set and there's four buttons and one, oh my God, and none of them are lit up right now. Peruvian pipes and so I I walk up to the wall and I put the headphones on. And they have these almost like gems stationed at the end of the ear cups as you put them on. And so I hit one and it lights up yellow and it starts playing whatever hit Enya single is on the first CD. And basically it plays a song from each of the tapes. And I listened to all four of them and I like them all.

And so I'm trying to find my favorite one to buy. and I'm going back and forth, and between two and three, I'm really struggling, and so I'm clicking back and forth. Oh, that one's really good. Well, I like the pipes and that one, but this one's got the chimes. And I'll finally settle on two, and I'll pick up a tape that'll go into some sort of music player, and I'll buy that as well. That'll be my...

Absolutely. I'd like to think that you settle on two because the button jams, and then you just can't get back to the... Oh, yeah. Oh, sticky, that's fine. You're listening to these hit songs by... until you narrow it down to two that really stand out to you for their tunes. Do you remember, sorry, I bet, look, do you remember the commercials and it would be those

like world music videos and it always started off with a whole song? Do you know what I'm talking about? Absolutely. That's the song that I said away. Say it away. Yeah, what is that commercial? Yeah, it was like sweet memories or like... But it also had the...

It had the X-Files theme on it. Yes, it did. Holy shit. The moment Rich started talking about that. 35. Holy shit. There's no idea what the fuck we're talking about.

Oh my God. Unlocked matter. While you're listening, oh, I'm sorry. Back to the game. Back to the game. While you're listening to the songs, you would notice, you spend quite a bit of time, I'd say, in private moments on the ship,

listening to music and enjoying it. This is, without a question, the best audio quality you've heard while experiencing music. There's like a special kind of tone to it as you're enjoying it. And you get that onto a tape, you purchase it from the gift shop,

and now you may have your end of tape. Perfect. But it's not spelled how you think. That's right. Oh, that's funny. I will go and I will try to find a book on raising, like, pheropods. And, like, what is the process of, like, I would like to learn about theropods and other T-Rex as T-Turanosaurus rex and carnatoris and other similar style dinosaurs.

And I'm just curious if it's possible to maybe ride one, because that would be really cool. And so I will maybe try to get a book. I see everyone else's kind of make, it's for a good cause, and I will take some of the notes that I have, and I will, you know, I'll pay for it. And I'll stick it in my back pocket. It's going to get totally crumpled and ruined,

but, you know, it's just, it's a nice thought. Yeah, I think you would absolutely find a history of fauna on Craita that dictates a lot of the natural life of creatures that you would find of all manner of dinosaur type. And perhaps you flip through it and you find that there is, in fact, a chapter on theropods, which I did have to look up. And you're able to get that book and you have that. And you can spend time with that and see if it's possible to ride a T-Rex.

I would make my way over to the children's section and the picture books that are filled with all of the parables that indoctrinate the children. And I would sit on the floor and indoctrinate myself. Yeah, you start, and this section is far more colorful. There's a lot of like pastel here. Ooh, oh yeah. On these books that some made actually out of harder paper material, not quite that you can flip through like a piece.

Closer to cardboard as you flip through these picture books. And you see all these different stories of the birthplace the galaxy, where life began, the harmony, the essence that flows and permeates the galaxy that everyone flows into and it flows back once more through everyone, a connection of everything, a balance within the galaxy. You find stories like this as you flip all throughout these books that are quite beautiful to look at and bring you absolutely a degree of joy and whimsy. I especially love the one with the fish that has

the one holographic scale. Classic. Yeah. Yeah. Nothing in the gift shop interests in Ziggy. Because it's all stuff that he knows. He knows that the gems are fake. He's heard the music. He's read the books. It's all his culture. So instead, I would like

to just kind of like when you're at the mall and you're not interested in what's going on inside of a sharper image. You sit on the bench outside. But I keep an eye out for my brother, and I maybe I'll get lucky and spot him. But however long, 5, 10, 15 minutes, 25 minutes, 45 minutes, 75 minutes, however long it takes, I'll just wait there and sort of ponder of everything that's happening right now.

You sit on a bench and you keep your eyes, for your brother. You think that it'll still be probably a couple hours or at least over an hour before you think you'll even have a chance to grab him in between some of his calendar. But you see your friends experiencing a land you grew up in. You see them basking in this kind of this culture. And you can't help but kind of sit there and enjoy that for a moment. As you keep your eyes peeled for your brother. That is cool.

I do enjoy seeing that. I'll have my gift bag, my bag from the shop. All right, I'm ready to go get a blessing or whatever she said. Yeah, I'm ready as well. Can you buy me these pile of picture books here because I gave my last notes to

the donation box? Oh, well, here, you can, if you need money. Well, I can't, the account is made for, Can you I'll buy it for you I'll put them in my bag Unless you want them now

Oh no no no I don't have a bag to carry them in Unbelievable I asked him one thing Bring the bag back Not even convinced to game He's doing his best Well I know I know I'm trying not to be mad I think we leave the gift shop

We do We did We did the gift shop I leave I mean the way to, I imagine that I actually have a decent familiarity of the layout. This is my hand, but I'm sort of like, yeah. I spent all my money on crystals. In face it like this.

Oh my God, Tykes are crystal girl now. Oh my God. Oh my gosh. I'd say you're familiar enough to know where to direct the party to go. So I would point us in the direction of where if it takes to go to this ceremony. You enter a large circular chamber and the harmonic tones become even more resonant and musical as a robed Tyrannodon Sorian slowly walks through the space as dozens of people sit and kneel before small crystals embedded in the ground. Speaking soft words briefly to each one, after which the crystal glows jade and amethyst, and then the priest moves on. There are dozens of these crystals available to commune.

with in beautiful geometric patterns along the floor. You see people walking up towards them and kneeling in front of these crystals, as if that, to receive the blessing or to be a part of it, that is what you feel as though you'd have to do. And there are several that are open and available for you to go kneel at should you choose to do so. I don't think, unless I felt like I needed to wait for Ziggy to do something, I'm certainly not a stranger to religious ceremony in some degree. And while this is not something that I would ever be familiar with or have ever experienced before, I don't think I would be uncomfortable

seeing what everyone else is doing and attempting to partake. If I felt like that that was appropriate and not completely out of line. I think you would be very clear that many people from the city, there are people of all types who are here. And the temple was extremely open it's not closed off all these areas are very accessible to you you're invited to be in this space your your presence is desired they want you to come they want you to find peace they want you to find balance in front of these crystals and so you would very much feel that there's no hesitancy with with you taking place in front of one there's no there's nothing that gives you a

vibe of being unwelcome in this space I would probably, once we enter, I know that it took a moment for everyone to sort of soak in the space and get a sense of watching how the others who maybe come here more regularly are interacting with everything. But I would probably chime up and say, I know that sounds crazy for me, but this is a respectful place, you know? This is a place where people come for peace and to share their joys and their grievances. So, you know, I'm not going to disturb anything. And if you're going to sit, if you're going to kneel, take it seriously, okay? No, absolutely. And Coe would have immediately, we're kind of joking around in the gift shop,

but as soon as we enter this place, I think Coe would have felt something, her demeanor would have changed and she would have held that extreme reverence. And I think even though she's new to Sorok culture and create a culture, the harmony is something that is revered on Goro as well. And people in her life would have done that. And I think that she would have immediately been a lot more quiet and respectful and would just walk up to one of the crystals in kneel in front of it. I would do the same. I would do the same. Pixel as well.

As each of you kneel before the harmonic gemstones, you look into each one and see a swirling energy within, almost like a mist that shifts to the same tempo as the musical tones that chime all around you. Once you are settled, the Chandler approaches you and speak softly. Welcome to this place of peace and reflection. If you are uninitiated to our practices, simply allow yourself to be calm. Let go of the noise of your daily worries and meditate on the crystal before you. Remember those in your heart who have returned to the harmony and feel their note in the oneness. And as he's walking around and inviting people with this declaration, he stops before you, Co. In front of the gym, inviting you to remember those.

who have fallen and have returned to the harmony, into the oneness. I think the, it's eerie for me to be in this room. Because there is this noise that's inside of me constantly, there's the tempest, there's the rage, there's the fury, there's the vengeance that I occasionally feel, not necessarily the vengeance, but the wrath. And the noise, it's almost even more contrasted in this quiet place. And it takes me at least a good minute or more

to try to quiet and think and thinking. And I'll think about the, I'll kneel and I will look and I will channel, do my best, the best that I can channel my memories. And I will think about those I've lost. Am I able to see anything as I look into this cruddles? Anything change? Hmm.

Um, you reflect and meditate, staring at the Harmonite gem embedded in the floor. And as of the, as you think of those you've lost, you see your own memories reflected back at you. What do you say? I think I would see for a moment what would have been a corner store.

and I would see a upper middle-aged rhizzo on the floor of the storage room, perhaps after having a cardiac event. Just laying on the floor, a bunch of things from the stock shelves, tumbled out. And in a flash, the storm would come back and kind of almost push it away as a memory that's too painful. and that in the pain kind of swirling around would be the streets of Macorro an explosion

as I looked up and then almost as if time reverses the window of Mrs. Umei waving and not just me but nearly but nearly everyone that I'm surrounded by as this kind of pain

and anger and vengeance is almost, I feel like it's polluting this memory, as then I kind of struggle and I force myself to be calm. I forced myself to push it down and try to remember what Mrs. Ume taught me of how to commune with the harmony, how to be at peace, how to reflect on the oneness,

how to reflect on the notes of that harmony. And I think finally, as I look and I stare into the crystal and I see that reflection, I would finally see the moments of my childhood that I remember of Mrs. Hume. I remember seeing that cricket with the clapping antennae in the front of her grocery store.

I remember when she would, as I would leave, giving me an extra plum and every single time it was just as sweet in GC and delightful. I would remember the times where I would, when my father was busy with work. I would remember basically playing video games that she would have, that she didn't need to buy, but she still would occasionally buy,

she had an old console and would buy video games, probably thoroughfare combatant one, even, where I would play, and I would think about the moments of where she would take me to the shrine that she would revere the harmony at. And she would kneel and be in reverence, and I would do my best, mimic it and seeing her go about the community helping people and that was kind of the way

that I remembered of she would help those in need she would always contribute she would always look after those she would babysit she would bring food to those who were grieving after losing someone and realizing that she was the thing that I respected by my father that I didn't that I also respected about Mrs. Umay in a different way was being a pillar of the community and being a pillar of the neighborhood and I would see those moments of her helping people and being that per pillar of the community that inspired me and I think I would realize the ways that she helped was done with a soft voice and a soft hand there was no beating there was no fighting there was no chasing off

and even the thugs that would come in and cause trouble, she would tell them a story or give them advice on how they might be able to pick their life up. And maybe it didn't work, but that was the, sometimes maybe it did. And I think perhaps for the first time I would see this reflection of Mrs. Ume and saw what the totality of what she was

and how she affected the community in the neighborhood and why she meant so much to me in a way that Po probably hadn't fully realized or appreciated it for. That's what I'd like to think, Coe would say. I would hope Coe would see that. It starts with that banishing of the stockroom, and you see the streets on Macquaro,

you see the apartment, you see Mrs. Ume walk a path almost through your entire life, starting with your childhood. You hear the sounds of laughter, the sounds of joy. She moves from one location to another, fundamentally improving the lives, the energy of those around her. You can almost smell the fresh-baked cookies. You can hear the clap of the toy that sat in her window.

Mrs. Ume was a small woman, not of great... stature, but of great heart. You can feel this pouring of love, this pouring of peace, this pouring of calmness. And as she walks through the streets, her hand outstretched above her to hold yours as you walk next to her. And the crystal in front of you glows and begins to bathe you in a light. Ziggy, you sit in front of your own crystal. You reflect and meditate. staring at the Harmonite gym embedded in the floor. You as well think of those you've lost. You see your own memories reflected back at you.

What do you see? I reach into my hoodie, and between my clasped hands, I pull out my necklace. A small, thin chain that's connected to a, the harmonite gem. Something that I keep concealed more times than not, wearing my headed hoodie as often as I do.

And I would look into this crystal not for the first time. And I have, in the many times that I've done this before, thought of the losses I've had in my life, not necessarily you know that many friends sometimes I prayed as many many times when I was younger I would have prayed to regarding Dash trying to make a connection there but so much

has happened in the last few years since I've had an opportunity to reflect and have this connection that my mind actually doesn't go to someone or or many people that I've lost, not personally, not quite like that, but instead I find myself meditating on the lives that I have sent to the harmony. I reflect on my journey as a bounty hunter and if I'm seeing into the crystal I'm seeing the streets of the Latofia sector of Macquaro and watching speeding bikes explode and vans erupt in flames, and remembering the fight that we had on the streets there,

in Rhett's face as I realized that this was a fight to the death. I remember flying through ether and chasing after pirate ships, and knowing that when those flames erupted, and all of the pieces of those ships scattered into space, drifting in all directions that there was a life inside that ship. And given how prolific Ziggy has been

over the course of these many campaigns, I would imagine that I might see or think of a number of faces, hear a number of screams, and closing my eyes and then forcing them back open, forcing myself to connect to those to try

to send not an apology but a profound sense of grief for having to do what I had to do in those situations or to try to send some peace in that direction not for my own but try to process a little bit and if those notes in the harmony pick up what I'm trying to send through, then I'll perhaps experience a little bit of solace. You stare into the crystal and you think of your journey, where it really began. You think of the Dondonganite factory and when you yourself were hunted by those who sought to kill you, how you, the only safety, the only bastion you could find was in the presence, of your friends, how you turn to a life of bounty hunting, you turn to a life of freedom, you turn to the stars,

and in that, you fought for your freedom. And in doing so, you've had to, you've had to take lives. And you see the faces as they move past you and you feel the grief and you pour that into the crystal. and you evoke the more somber elements of the harmony as everything once more exists in a balance where there is vital forces of life there are somber forces of death and returning the harmony is one note and to give it must also take and you've experienced that quite a bit and you think on that and you reflect on that, and you pour that energy into the crystal in front of you, and it begins to glow and bathe you in a light. I think Pixel sat next.

Uh, Pixel would look into the crystal, and she would see a smoky room, a big leather chair, a wooden desk. She would immediately see the sallow flesh of a... No life left in his body. Eyes completely devoid of everything, as she just watches this unmoving figure for what feels like eternity. And then she sees the dirty streets.

A weak and lonely and hungry, Globelin Pixel is helped out of the streets by that very same man, brings her back to the Glitz Room, gives her her very first key tar, teaches her about chords, what it is to be a pop star and to reach for your dreams, not letting anybody hold you back and hold you down. And all the while, doing various things in the background, but always with a smile for her. She watches the story of their life play out, not blind to all of the darkness, but seeing all

of the light until she makes her way back to that room and watches his death over and over and over again for what feels like in eternity. And every time seeing that moment when she was at his weakest and that he found a place for kindness for her. But in his weakest moments in his dying breath, she had nothing but malice. And she feels regret. that she couldn't find kindness even for the wicked. As you reflect on those memories and stare into the crystal, the energy sworel and possibly one of the most complex dances of the harmony all at once. A life saved, a life well lived, a life abandoned,

someone who cared for you, someone you cared for, an extremely complicated relationship. but one forever now in your past. As you stare in and you think of that, that love, that thankfulness, that malice, that regret, all in one maelstrom of emotion as you poured into the crystal. And it begins to glow and bathes you in a light. Right. Kneeling in front of the crystal, you think of those you have lost.

memories reflected back at you. I think of all the people that I've known and have died. That is a lot. It's a lot of people. It's a choir. It's a choir of people. Yes. But being here and seeing the surroundings,

I think of one in particular. I think of one in particular. barracks and leisurely moments with a friend playing poker, staying up late in our bunks and chatting about life in the future. I think about times in the mess hall, getting our meals. I think about training in weaponry, gravtech, going to the firing range. And I think about moments on those long voyages on those transports, where you're just waiting for hell. You're waiting for the other shoe to drop. I think about the things we used to say that there's so many different worlds, so many different suns,

but we just have one hunk of metal, and that's home, and that's all we have to return to. And then I think about one contract, the heat, the lava, the volcanoes, the rocky mountain crags, Grimco mining equipment, torn asunder. I think of Solar Federation, soldiers screaming.

And I think of a moment where I look up into the sky and not too dissimilar from the large wings, long necks, gnashing teeth, whipping tails, I think of a beast from outside the galaxy. Swooping through the battlefield and breathing a terrible breath that nearly disintegrates.

Brock Indigo. my brother in arms that for whatever reason I wasn't in its path and I look over and half of them is gone. I remember picking myself up and continuing the fight. I remember leaving. I remember

being back home on that hunk of metal with the fields of destruction behind me. I remember sitting at a computer terminal with my bank account open. There's sort of that flashing glow that said soul-fed contract hyphen Caldoa with a payment amount. And that's where the memory stopped. You reflect on this in the crystal. You think of a life that began well-lived, easier to say barely survived. But the warmth, the light that peers through the memory.

rock the times in the mess hall the times on the trawlers the times together the peaceful moments in between the chaos that sought to bring balance to chaotic situations you think of the the violence the instantaneous nature of his passing you think of the the goodness he brought into the world or at least into you, that you were able to get through these moments together until one of you wasn't. You reflect on these memories, you pour that emotion into the crystal, and once more its light glows and shines upon you. I think that anybody who were to meet Pike would generally describe him as a calm and aloof individual, but underneath of the

surface, especially these last three weeks, he's been anything but those things. And being here in this temple, I think has given him a sense of ease, having some sort of a familiar handhold, even if it's not his primary, my primary religion. There's been a lot of distance that's been put between Pike and the things that had happened so many months ago. but even in this moment there's a fear in the back of my mind that if I close my eyes to concentrate on

memories or the past or this crystal that I'll see Kane's face but regardless I press through and I think about the significance of this place and where we're at and what we're doing and I think back on a man an older

Solari man who found a much younger me and first taught me about truth, love, beauty and freedom, the tenets and philosophies of Alara

and what it meant to follow those teachings and live that kind of life and those were the best years of young Pike's life.

There were many years of fun and a care of freeness about Pike as he lived this life that for the first time was truly his own. And I didn't live for anyone

else. Except for these tenants. This man eventually taught Pike how to defend him taught Pike the tools that he needed to learn the martial arts and moves that he knows now. And years went by and it wasn't long before Pike began to surpass this, the Solari, this man. And he remembers the moment that he was gifted the gauntlet.

there's a reverence about it and an unworthiness an imposter syndrome surrounding this moment of of you know how how could i ever live up to gales's expectations and in an almost crashing moment pike also remembers his death gales's death there was a strength to gales and not a physical strength, but his presence, his personality, the way that he acted towards all of the other people who are part of this movement. And there's a stark difference in the way that Pike remembers his broken body. An unfortunate interaction with a bunch of drunk goons, right? And they might have been Nexus security or Solar Federation security. But nonetheless, Gales was in the wrong place at the wrong time and he's murdered by these goons.

And there's something so different about his body then compared to how he was in life. That is shocking. But Pike thinks upon Gallus and thanks him nonetheless every day for gifting him not the gauntlet, but the philosophy of true. Truth, love, beauty, and freedom. You stare into the crystal and you think of Gales. And you think for a moment of his form when he returned to the harmony. You think of him lying on the ground after this run in.

And you think of him strong. You think of him capable. You see him the man you know that set you on a path, on a trajectory for the rest of your life, that taught you of love, of freedom, of beauty. You saw a man that gathered those to him, not with a closed fist, but with open arms. A man who knew how to follow his feet, knew what his path was,

and who brought light. And you feel that in the crystal. as it begins to glow and shine its light upon you. And as you all reflect on those lost to you, that misty energy in the crystal that's been shining upon you, you all gain the benefits of the Bless spell for 24 hours. Oh, nice. Well done, T.

Let's go! It could be useful. Holy! All I'm going to say is that's ominous. Blast is only up to three creatures, so you're going to have to pick. It was damn. One and four to attack hold and saving throws, I believe. Yes.

Not a billing checks. Correct. Yeah, just attack and saving throws. If this feels like it, how long does this take? Oh, I'd say in a similar way of contemplation as you kneel there and you go through these moments, you almost lose, you get so indicted. deep with this resonance, you start to lose the room around you. You focus on these thoughts, those lost to you.

You focus on this balance with the crystal. You pay homage, you remember. And I would say you're probably standing and kneeling in front of these crystals for what feels like moments, but what takes closer to two hours. Wow. And the ceremony continues on even beyond that as people continue to walk into this circular chamber of the harmony and new people kneel at crystals. New people begin to remember, to recall, to honor those that have returned to the harmony that have gone to become one note. And that time passes.

And I would say that each one of you would rise in different moments. as you would spend however much time ruminating, reflecting in this space, as you feel as though you would. And whatever time you would continue to take there, you could with however meaningful this is to you. How are you feeling, Red? I'm all right. I'm all right. These dinosaurs don't breathe anything, do they? No.

I mean, there are some small ones that I think can spit acid, but... You know, we don't ride those around or have them around the temples. All right. Yeah. Let's wait for your brother. It's our only shot. There's a nice, uh, uh, a little seating arrangement in the center area. Uh, you stay here as long as you want, but I'm, I think that's the most likely, uh, most trafficked area where he might swing by and if not, then I'll take you guys back down

to that noodle place and we'll figure out our next move, all right? Does we want any coffee from the cafe? I'll bring it over to where we're waiting. I'll take some. None for me, thanks. Picks? No, thank you, Cole. If they've got a gex, I don't bring coffee.

I'll see. And I'll go to the cafe and just get a, rat a coffee and myself a coffee, and if they have a soda, bring it over. And just basically watch wherever we think that, wherever we think he's going to be coming, if we have a chance. Yeah, I think you, and you're able to do so, and they have very basic coffee. It's effectively just caffeinated with cream.

You get your coffees. We'll say you can find a geck soda for Ziggy. And you bring it back to the party. You're able to discern through overhearing two. two other acolytes discussing it but you know that the channeler meeting is taking place in one of the

spires that that connect to this main temple but that it feeds into a concourse that comes back this way and there's this kind of twin staircases that elevated above there's a staircase

that comes down on a side and spins and and let's out into the room that you're in on a far side in a slightly more secluded corner. But you would believe that when the meeting wraps up, your best shot would be to see if your brother comes down that way. I'll keep my eyes focused on that. You wait and wait and wait, and you begin to lose hope that you're at the right location or that the meeting will ever end. Then finally, huge ornate doors to an inner chamber opens and a group of about a dozen harmonic channelers make their way out.

Among them you see a triceratops sorian who is about 8 to 10 years older than Ziggy, with similar orange red scales but with an even more reddish hue. He is a considerably taller and more physically built than Ziggy, and by all Sorian standards is quite conventionally attractive. It is clearly Calicus Wug. The group murmurs as they chat with each other, making their way through the temple. The moment that I see

my brother, I'll jump up from where we're sitting and I will start to run over. I'll probably make it six, seven steps before slowing down a little bit, but I'm making myself as big as I can. My arms in the air. I'm waving it back and back and forth

and I'm going, Cal! Hey, Cal! You get his attention. He loves. looks at you. There's a moment of confusion, then recognition, then shock, then clear embarrassment. As the other channelers give odd looks, he says a few words to them and makes pausing gesture as he walks over to you. The channelers seemingly holding back and waiting for him to finish the conversation. Zygman, what are you doing here?

Cal, it's important that we talk to you. Also, can you please call me Ziggy? Ziggy, so when did you arrive in Crater? Thanks, I'm not ten anymore. I've only been here since this morning, but we're looking for you. It's extremely urgent. You're in great danger. I don't mean to disrespect the choices you've made.

It's a habit of childhood. I'm afraid is difficult to shed. But Ziggy, so I'm in danger. What do you mean? I'm not a kid anymore. I'm a bounty hunter. I'm a bounty hunter, and this is the crew that I'm a part of,

and I want you to meet all of them, but what's really important is that we've learned important information that your life is in danger. You need to listen to me. Ziggy, my life is in danger. We sit in the capital currently. You've seen the warships that ban movement to Crayta. We're surrounded by guards.

My life is in danger. I know. I know it sounds crazy. I know. Right now you're doing that thing where you think you're helping, but it's not. It's not helping at all.

There's a serious threat. And the person who's after you, this is a dangerous assassin, a terrible, a killer. Somebody who's going to be able to find you sneak past all of this. And they're just going to take care of business. Ziggy, is this?

the robot, sword, Lovelies episode. You loved that so much. That sound very cool and no it is not. You never knew me. I, look, look, this is a serious business. I'm gonna pull out my grid boy. And I'm gonna hold it up and I'm going to, with a gesture, swipe up and show a picture.

Would I have a picture of Portia Bella from that? the data that I have. It suddenly occurs to me that I don't know if I have any way of visually showing him. Yeah, I don't know if we've got to... I don't know. I don't know. I do. I don't think you do. I have no way of showing him, then I would... Unless

Quibbley, like, left a photo of her. Unlikely, right? I don't think he would. I don't think he would have. The only way that I would have found it would have been through... He would have had that on him and the facility went... Yeah. Unless it wasn't managed data, which it sounds like the answer is no, then I would

unless it was in the bounty sheet too, right? Like, she has a bounty out. Oh, that's fair. I pull up the bounty sheet. Okay. Thank you. You got me. You got me. You got me.

You did get a photo in the wanted poster. I pulled up the warranted poster. This person, we're after this bounty. And she's serious, dangerous business. Just look at those notes, okay? And it was totally unrelated and we were hunting her down. And that's what I've been doing for the last year or so. But what's really important,

is that this, this, this is the person who, you're a next target. And I know it sounds like one of my crazy stories, but it isn't. This is real, the real deal. Look, I'm a, I'm a bounty hunter. I'm going to look for my card and realize that I left it on the rap scene. What, what information, are you showing him all the information you got from that?

No, no. I think, I think that in my, in my rushed and, and, and just trying to brute force this, I am just going to have shown the wanted poster. I'm just going to be speaking in a, a fast, almost panicked manner, because the combination of seeing him for the first time after all this time and me feeling like this is the most serious thing

that is happening, Ziggy's flustered. And so I'm just racing a million miles a minute as I try to articulate this elaborate conspiracy. Ziggy, I'm happy that you seem to have friends that travel with you. Thanks, thanks, Cal.

But I cannot get caught up in your flights of fancy. I don't know what games you all play, but there is no reason for this person to be hunting me. And even if that were the case, this is the safest place that I could be I look I I I know it feels that way but I I I'm serious it's it's it's

you gotta you gotta believe me this person we were tracking her and and and and all the clues all led to the realization that she's on this war path and I don't know exactly why I don't know why I don't have the exact reason but for some reason

you are her next target. There's no question. Ziggi, as he continues to talk to you, you'll notice that some of the other channelers behind him have started to call out, wondering kind of what's taking so long as he's dealing with you all. He'll turn once more, tossing up a hand to pause them. Ziggy, you spend too much time, I fear. In digital worlds, exploring other realities. please I lead my own ceremony in three days. Would you stay in greater, join it? I would love to

once more bring you to the harmony. Of course we'll stay. We want to protect you. That's why we're here. We want to make sure that you increase security and I understand that you're very busy and important and all this stuff. But you got to tell people.

You got to make sure that you protect yourself and if there's anything that we can do, then we're here. I want to make sure that you're okay. I know I tried to contact a sis, and I tried to contact Ma and Dad, and I tried to contact all of them, and I just, the only way that I was able to get in touch with you was coming here.

Well, you know, mom and dad are on Mavros. Is that, yeah? You know about the attacks from the empire. It's undone years of work that they've attempted to do to stabilize peace in the galaxy. They're overwhelmed at trying to reestablish diplomatic ties. Unreachable. Wow. On Mavros?

That must be... That was a big deal. It's my understanding that most ambassadors are there. But Ziggy, I don't want you to worry for my safety. here in the temple you're defended. Kreda is on alert. For someone to get to me here, impossible. And, Zigi, a bounty hunter, I am happy you're here.

But I have to prepare for my communion with the harmony this evening. Cal, Look, I've told you what I need to tell you, and we're not giving up. I told you I'm not a young kid anymore, and I'm here. I'm going to take up pen and paper. Small notepad. I'm going to write down my number. You take this.

This is how you reach me. If there's any emergency, you need to tell us where you are and get us to you as quickly as possible. We know how to handle these situations. We're the experts. I'm sure you are. You may not be a little kid anymore, which will always be my little brother. I will see you in three days.

All right. Bye, Cal. Goodbye. I want to hold you up any longer. He'll turn and weave, rejoining the other channelers as they walk together towards another section of the temple, moving towards

the next item that draws their attention. Perhaps preparing for his solitary reflection with the harmony this very evening. Calicus gives you a saddened but resolved look as he turns away from you and returns to the group of channelers who have a variety of expressions from quizzical to displeased. They turn and head out a door leading deeper into the temple. I'm gonna head back to the group

and... Well, I... I don't think he believed me. Not even a little bit? Wait, that didn't go well? I showed him the wanted poster, and I told him everything that we found out, and I...

But I waved twice at him happily. How could he not believe us? He didn't look mean or angry or upset. No, he kind of slight smiled at you a couple times. He's kind of hot. Did you know that about him? You didn't say you had a hot brother You should lead with that

Wait You said that he didn't believe you He either doesn't think that there's any threat or He thinks that any threat that could get here Would be crushed before they could ever reach him He doesn't believe that Portia would be able to break through Any security or sneak past and get to him Did you show him your

Bounty ID? Yeah I forgot You forgot to show him? No, I don't seem to have it on me. I thought I thought I put it my pack, but I must have left it on the ship. You know, it's like 25 notes every time we have to replace that thing. This is like my fourth ID.

Damn it. All four of them are in my room right now. Okay. All right, well then that leaves us no choice. So we just, no choice. Like, we're just going to hang out and go to this thing in three days? We just have to find Portia. Well, maybe he's right, though.

I mean, it was hard to get in here, and he's in this big, beautiful temple, and there's Jamina. So, like, maybe she can't get to him, and we're... Well, then great. And that's fine, and I hope that that's the case, but we're certainly not here just out of the goodness of our hearts. There's a lot of notes on the line here, and we can still find Portia. I mean, if she's coming for him, then she's got to be either here or on her way. And so... Sorry, cool.

And if he's untouchable, then I can't think of any better be. I mean, and maybe he's right, like, I don't know, maybe Portia's underestimating the security. I wouldn't like to be the one to take her in, but it's not going to be the end of the world if, you know, she gets nabbed by security here and at least. Ziggi's brother's safe. Fine by me. And I agree with that as long as Ziggy's brother's safe. How did that go, by the way? Is he...

Was he happy to see it? That's a hard... I think so. He's always been really hard for me to read. And he's even more balanced now. Kind of stoic. Kind of reserved. Sort of poitie.

Tootie all stuck up and does his own, you know, it's, it was always that way really, but he's, he's really leaned into the things that he was good at when he was younger. He makes a great Chandler. I'll bet. He's got that kind of mysterious, vague thing going on. Yeah. To fix his point, he's never been a lonely guy. Oh, so he's got a wife then. Chandlers have a lifelong vow of chastity. Oh. Is what I declare, world building late. Pizzles like challenge accepted.

I will defile him by Sunday. He will never be the same. He won't be welcome in the temples anymore. You don't say. No, no, whatever means besides. That's me being used. That's very funny. I wonder if Cal's ever seen lingerie. I don't know.

As far as you know, he's unmarried. As far as I know, as far as I know, he's married to the job. He's married to the job. He's a channeler. I could change my name to job. I'll kind of like step up to Ziggy and I'll say, Hey, Ziggy, don't feel bad. You did the best you could.

I'm not going to lie as soon as I saw that motherfucker's smug face. I knew that nothing he said was going to change his mind. Now, would I have to be a mom? No one's going to be a mom. I couldn't really tell how it was going, but I didn't want to interrupt, given how, you know, it's been a while since you two saw each other. But you think it would have helped if maybe I showed up. I don't know. Not a chance.

Do you see that guy? I'm just a random dude. You think anything that we're going to say is going to convince that guy? You didn't really pull off those rooms, didn't he? Oh, yeah, he did. Yeah. We are, we are peasants. We're the russet.

low show and peasants of Sterlach to that guy. I could play that role. All right. He's like, I want to join his rope as muscle the hopes. Yeah, I don't think it would have helped. We have our backup plan.

Yeah. Okay, so where do we go to even seek her route and look for her, like, in his bedroom? I'm going to go and get some noodles. I'm going to walk down those stupid steps. And I'm going to take you to the place that we passed by.

Oh, I was going to ask if you wanted us to come with you or if you needed some time by yourself to do some thinking. I think I'd rather have the company. And I think we need to figure out what to do next. And I think that we need to... Did you tell him about your new girlfriend? What? Yeah, because, you know, you haven't seen him in a while. So, like, most of the time, when you see your family after a long time, you're like, hey, they're like, hey, so Ziggy, you're seeing anyone?

And then you say, yeah, I've got this really messy. girlfriend back home. Silica? Huh? I know. We didn't talk about anything. Okay. I mean, I got a couple details about, you know, my fam, at least my mom and dad, but like, it's all, it's a galaxy away.

Well, let's talk about it in noodles, yeah? Yeah, we can maybe, I don't know, stake out the spaceport, or maybe you can spike into their communications and if we get a sense and maybe she's coming or going, find some way to get the jump or learn more. Or we can, yeah, maybe we start with noodles and take it from there. Can we get ice cream? Nothing goes better with noodles than ice cream. I think there's an ice cream stop.

It's right next to this sex chom. Oh, cool. Can we go in there, too? It's called the polished stone. It's just down the steps. I make two rights and then a left. I thought it was a knock on the door. The polished stones.

Very, very funny, Derek. Yeah, thank you. Very funny. The plural. so important. That player is so important. Okay, let's get some noodles. We'll figure out, and then we don't have to worry about the guards fucking up our bounty.

She's not been caught yet, and it's been months and months. If anything, she's going to do it under the cover of darkness. She's not going to do it in broad daylight. Yeah, we've got some time to get some food. We'll gather ourselves, and we'll come up with a plan. You think she's going to do it in night? I mean, that's what I would do. Well, he's sleeping in his room?

Probably. Yeah, Pike used to do this for a living. I would say that you would know that at night in the routine that you saw, and even when he said to Ziggy, that's where he takes solitary communes with the harmony. So at night is one of the very few times where he's completely alone. He communes solitarily? I'm good at this. Wow. He used to do this for a living. Who did?

Pike. He used to kill really important people. The whole galactic political thing, I think. I thought you meant he was religious for reliving. I mean, kind of, yeah, both. In a way. You're religious. Yeah.

What is this about you? I don't talk about myself too much. I was on a lot of drugs. Yeah, you were. I think he'd be a... I was on a lot of drugs. It's okay, Pace, we'll fill you. We'll get you.

I feel like I don't know any of you at all. Come on. Let's get some noodles. At least I know how to spell pike. P-I-K-E. I still have the keychain you gave me that's just fell on the key. They're like in my pocket and I'm just like, ah. I'll guide everyone out of the temple.

You exit the temple. And I'll wave to the attendant. See you next time, Julia. And then make our way down the steps. You start walking down the steps. You feel, you would hope that meeting with your brother, that speaking with Calicus, you'd be able to relay to him the threat that he would come with you. come with you or he'd go into hiding. And it seems to have had no effect as he continues

about his journey. And it's about halfway down the steps when your grid boy starts to ring. You get a notification that a call is coming in. It's from an unknown signature. There's a strange moment where the signature turns orange and a line across the stream screen starts to form. As soon as you pick up, you hear Meg's voice come through, and it sounds frantic.

I'm sorry for being a little sneaky, but that's not important. I snuck in a tiny great boy that you didn't find, but I still didn't escape, so there's good news and there's bad news. See, I'm hoping you, Dino Bite, but

it's bad. I just did some grid spiking, and I learned that Portia has landed on Craida. She's going to attack tonight. And that's where we'll end the session. Another makes. Nuckin grid boy. We all start really putting on the latex gloves.

Yeah, I'm getting up in there. I didn't invest in an X-ray machine. I'm real tired of the air. Can we just buy a scanner? Yeah, right? Wow. Don't know how much, how much. This runs such a...