Mayday Plays - Doomed To Repeat, Ep. 22 - "Off The Books" | Delta Green

Episode Date: October 31, 2023

Welcome back to arc 3 of Doomed To Repeat. The nail-biting, anxiety-inducing, award-winning actual play returns for another round of eldritch terror. We check back in with the agents of PERENNIAL as Agent Tuck calls each of them to explain the impossible. Her long-lost sister Mia, who disappeared at age 6, has re-appeared at the same age in the Hetch Hetchy reservoir in present-day Yosemite National Park. Meanwhile, something is bubbling under Tuck’s skin. Something Unnatural. Is Tuck strong enough to harness her new power, and how long can the agents cover for her? This episode features the scenario “Operation: Fulminate, Sentinels of Twilight” by Dennis Detwiller. TRIGGER AND CONTENT WARNINGS: Violence, body horror, mental illness, Dissociative Identity Disorder, PTSD, manipulation, gaslighting, religious trauma, infighting, the topic of Covid-19 including conspiracy theorists, drug and alcohol use, gun and knife violence, Eldritch Horror sexual situations specifically under the influence (but not in a hentai way), surgery discussions, legal proceedings, mentions of racially insensitive folk tales., threats against the life of a child, medical procedures, parental disagreements, missing children, scars. Published by arrangement with the Delta Green Partnership. The intellectual property known as Delta Green is a trademark and copyright owned by the Delta Green Partnership, who has licensed its use here. The contents of this podcast are © Mayday Roleplay, excepting those elements that are components of the Delta Green intellectual property. CAST OF CHARACTERS • Lev (they/them) - Haley Moore, Agent Tuck (she/they) • Amanda (she/her) - Maxine Parker, Agent Boomer (she/her) • Caleb (he/him) - Orson Bradham, Agent Merit (he/him) • Eli (any/all) - Kona Morales, Agent Hyde (she/her) • Zakiya (she/they) - Gaze, Agent Warp (she/they) • Sergio (he/him) - The Handler MUSIC & SOUND EFFECTS • Post Sound Supervision: Sergio Crego, Eli Hauschel • Mixed: Eli Hauschel • Original Theme, "Agent's Prognosis" by Aaron A. Pabst • Soundstripe (soundstripe.com) • Epidemic Sound (epidemicsound.com/) • Soundly (getsoundly.com/) DELTA GREEN LINKS • Delta Green (http://deltagreen.com/) • Operation FULMINATE: Sentinels of Twilight (https://drivethrurpg.com/en/product/456340/) MAYDAY ROLEPLAY LINKS • Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/maydayrp) • Ko-Fi (https://ko-fi.com/maydayrp) • Mayday website (https://www.maydayroleplay.com/) • Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/@Maydayrp)

Doomed to Repeat is a Delta Green actual play podcast with violent themes and adult language. Listener discretion is advised. Hello and welcome back to arc three of our Delta Green campaign titled Doomed to Repeat. I'm Sergio, your handler. I'm Love and I play Agent Tuck. I'm Amanda Dominic and I am Agent Boomer. I'm Caleb James Miller and I play Agent Merritt. I'm Eli and I'm playing Agent Hyde.

I'm Zekea and I play Agent Warp. Last year, we submitted the show to Web and Podcast Festivals, in the hopes of garnering some laurels. thrilled to earn over seven official selections and four awards for the show, including Best Actual Play and Best Game Master. I wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who ran the festivals and voted for us. It's a wonderful feeling to be recognized for all our hard work, and we're so thankful to have been nominated.

It's now 2023, and this counts as May Day's fourth year as a podcast, and we're celebrating the release of this new arc with a contest for the first, fifth, and the first, fifth, and And last episode of this arc, we'll be giving away May Day merch. Every round, it'll be five stickers, one Perennial Airlines T-shirt, and one never-before-released May Day poster commemorating Devil's Night, 1984. Did I mention it was signed by the cast? Check our socials for the photos and more details. If you want the chance to win in this first round,

follow our social media, you know, the usual suspects, at Mayday Rollplay, and you'll see that we've posted a question that can only be answered by listening to this episode. Email us what you think the answer is at Mayday Rollplay 7 at gmail.com and get it into us before November 24th, or the release of episode 23, the sequel to this episode. For this arc of Doom to Repeat, I've also recorded a supplemental campaign diary that I'll aim to put out as a companion piece to every new episode we drop. There, I'll discuss my plans for the sessions, the overall campaign, and some of the challenges of prepping and running the game. My hope is it will lend some unique insight into the production of our show and maybe help other handlers who are working on a Delta Green campaign of their own. It's available as of the release of this episode in YouTube and podcast format.

So make sure to check it out. If you enjoy what we do here, be sure to not only like and subscribe, but leave a positive review. This tends to help us get noticed by the Algorithm gods. We're still a very little show, and any support you can offer, including joining our Patreon, goes a long way towards sustaining us, so we can keep up the hard work of producing several actual plays a year, not just this one. In this episode, we begin our playthrough of the scenario Operation Fulminate, Sentinels of Twilight, by Dennis Detwiller. I'll stop stalling now and get to what you are patiently waiting for. Let's experience together the beginning of the end of doomed to repeat.

It is Wednesday, September 30th, 2020. The first year of the COVID-19 pandemic is coming finally to a close. And so too, it seems, is the patience of most Americans. The presidential elections are ramping up, and the country seems ready to tear itself apart. Any chance at a unified front against the disease has been, thrown out, as masking policies vary wildly between states. There is still no vaccine in sight. America lives in two realities now, and coincidentally, so too do program agents. In one reality, you are loving family members or devoted friends, but in another, you are trapped in a losing

war against unspeakable horror. And though you labor to keep both from colliding, they draw inescapably closer, attracted in some twisted law of decay. Agents, you have all silently suffered through a year that, on paper, should have been easy. But by now, you all know better. This job is not meant to be fulfilling. It is meant to be survived. You catch yourself sleepless at night sometimes, wondering, what does survival even look like? Is it escape?

to some exotic country, buy a new alias and live anonymously ever after? Maybe you could for a while. But OPSEC demands we maintain our silence, or we become the mission. Is it returning to the fold, if they'd only give you a chance? Accept the Faustian bargain that you made a long time ago, a promise to maintain a conspiracy bigger than any of you. You could climb up the ladder like Mallory, where you can be safe from the field, but dying from the exposure.

And there's always the example of Deborah Constance, fractured and imprisoned. You've come to realize that survival is really just delaying the inevitable. But it is better than death, which is why you wait for the call. Because you know, deep down, it's coming. Boomer. Yes, yes. Last we left you, you were offered a deal by March Technologies. A deal for exclusivity on your algorithm.

A project that is both yours personally and your business partner, Evans. Thornbill and the lawyers have just left your office, leaving behind a contract for you to review. What do you do? I'm going to go ahead and review it. Go to the first couple paragraphs. I know exactly. I'm looking for numbers. Yeah.

The numbers, as they stated to you in the meeting, close to $2.8 million. I'm going to smirk at that number, and I'm going to keep reading the rest of the agreement and contract for anything additional. If you're going to read into it without a professional, give me a law roll. First roll and the pressure, Amanda. First roll of the game and accounting roll. Oh, I have a good law roll. 39 and my law's of 40 Off to a good start

A la. Razor thin margin for season 3. You are a businesswoman, you have much experience with these kinds of things. You do eventually show it to your lawyer, and the lawyer confirms what you are able to read. This is a legit contract. It's also a very generous offer. They are not only buying exclusivity on the algorithm, but the parts of your organization that deal with, and update and run the algorithm are now effectively a subsidiary of March.

And that part of your company will become part of March. I, okay. So, okay, so the, anyone that works under my employment, they're not going to know the true March thing, correct? Or is it, like, is it their agents taking over? I just want to make your understanding. Your employees will remain employees of your business, but your business is now attached to March Technologies.

Wow. Your business partner, Evans, has an interesting secondary opinion. He reads the contract since you give it to him, and he comes in one day to your office and he says, listen, we shouldn't sign the contract. We should leak it to the press and start a bidding war. I'm going to quickly get up and close the door and make sure no one heard anything like that. Sit him down and be like, that is a good idea. The issue that happened is, do you remember when I was traveling out of the office for a little bit, trying to lock this down?

Yeah, a couple months ago. We had to, it was for us to guarantee the contract. I had to make a call, and that was to be exclusive to them. There's a little back and forth where he resists, but he trusts you. So, Agent Boomer, are you going to take the contract? I will. I will go ahead and, uh, I will take the contract. And I will also, for the sake of, so Evans can feel like I am not totally icing him,

I'm going to say, yes, I will take lead on this division. So any projects that he wants to endeavor, I will give my full support. And he's going to take over the rest of kind of like everything else on the company while I deal with the government. The paperwork is signed. And both you and Evans. become millionaires. Thank you very much. I would like you to make a note that from this point on,

all of your requisition rolls for major expenses and under and below are made it plus 20%. Okay. However, I would like you to reduce your connection with Evans by one. Your bond needs to be reduced by one. So a few months pass, the months in which Tuck is recovering from their injury, Does Boomer's appearance or demeanor change in any significant way? A bit, yes. Boomer actually cut off a good chunk of their hair and kept it is now, it's actually shorter.

It's still very curly. It's now like a long bob, if you will, because of incidences of clearing out some gore and blood, and it just triggered some bad memories. So she cut off her hair and also heads up. did take a first aid class. So she's actually a little bit more, she's going to carry like a side bag that's not a fanny pack. It is not a fanny pack.

It is a nice side bag that she carries on her person that is kind of a trauma response for everything with tuck. And of course, with your new finances, you could easily afford the best trauma kit that money can buy. It's a Versace if it can be. Like it has like a designer label little thing where you can zip it. In these months where you're enjoying your new success, your new wealth, there is a process that your company needs to go to to help retrofit this algorithm into March technology systems.

And it's March that you're dealing with mostly, Thorn Bill as your liaison. One day, close to the end of the process, you are called by Thornbill. You are invited to the activation of one of the server farms after the installation of your software. Do you accept the invitation? Yes, I will accept the invitation. At a nondescript office park somewhere in Washington, you have to drive there for the day. Boomer, you find yourself in a server farm. It is nondescript, as average as any other office building.

or office park. And when you step inside, what is made clear is that this office building has some very heavy security. You go through the walls, you are scanned, you are patted down, your name is signed in, your ID is copied.

Do I leave my phone behind in all my positions or I'm allowed to carry that? I think they leave it with you. Okay. You step into kind of the main area where the server is running. You can hear the humming of the machines. and there's kind of an impromptu gathering here.

Thornbill is there and recognizes you and approaches. There appear to be one other two IT members and scientists that were kind of involved in working with you. Thornebill says they're hellos and you know, you're kind of milling about before there's a little bit of a kerfuffle at the front door. And walking through the door is a tall man in his possible. 70s, late 60s, trim in shape, and is wearing the uniform and stripes of an admiral. With him is a shorter, dark-skinned woman with short-cropped hair and seems to be either an assistant or maybe a fellow intelligence officer of some kind. Thornbill introduces the two of you and mentions that this is Admiral Gates.

he is part of D2, the intelligence branch of the program. He approaches you, he puts out his big hand, shakes your hand. He says to you, your work is going to ensure our superiority in the 21st century. I'm happy to hear that. Beside him is, again, this kind of unassuming woman. He introduces her as intelligence officer April Crumpton. As I described, short, mostly graying hair, slumped shoulders, a little overweight, a little disconnected from the whole scene.

She doesn't really look you in the eye. She doesn't really talk very much. And kind of as everyone begins to gather and talk, she almost sort of fades into the background where you'll notice, oh, yeah, she's right behind the Admiral as they walk around. And the group is given a sort of brief tour of the facility, showing off the security, etc.

It seems like Admiral Gates is concerned with this. Kind of like a millisecond where I could Mike get April's attention, I will kind of lean in and be like, Miss Crumpton, what are your thoughts on on my program? It seems like she is struggling to hold a conversation even with one person. And what she is able to kind of squeeze out is good code. Very good code. I'm happy you think so. my side bag, there is like with a, was it, I have like a little mint candy, I will just go like hand it out and see if I will take it. I'll be very respectful distance and not really touch.

Where the charm of Boomer works with the average person and something like a nice gesture of handing out candy works easily most of the time. There's something guarded about April and she doesn't seem upset. set by the offer, but just politely declines the gesture. When the tour is over, Admiral Gates and intelligence officer Crumpton leave, and Thornbill comes over to you and says, I saw you speaking to April Crumpton. Well, from my gathering, she was probably the smartest person in the room, and that's including me. Hence why I wanted to talk to her.

You've got a good eye for talent, because you're right. She's kind of infamous around here. Some circles know her as Agent Andrea, and she infamously built the database that your algorithm is currently encrypting. You wouldn't think it. Oh, no, I could tell instantly. You know why? Why? Because she was listening to the numbers. To us, that's nothing, but to her, it's like a music.

I know people like that. I used to work with them. I hire a lot. Thornebill ends the conversation by saying, good work, Boomer. This is good both for you and for March. You know what? The way I see it is, if you're... if we can just keep it working, it's not a problem.

It's all gravy, baby. The event, which didn't have any drinks or hors d'oeuvres or anything like that, very informal. Oh, suck. Comes to an end. And you are leaving the office park heading back to your car when your phone begins to ring. And it's tuck. What do you do? I will pick it up, and I'm going to be like, hey, sexy, how's you breathing?

The cheery tone is met with a completely distraught. state. Tuck informs you of something completely unbelievable. Her sister, who went missing 30 years ago, the girl that you have been helping her figure out her disappearance has returned. I'm gonna just punietta, puneta, puneta, puneta, I'm just gonna be like kind of frazzled. She's in Yosemite and Tuck is on her way to pick her up. She informs you that she's going to call the others. Okay, um, send me locations. Deeds, I'm already getting the car. I'll hit up some stuff and I'll come up in the car. I wouldn't have driven off right away as soon as hang up.

Boomer's going to, like, she will, like, cry and freak out in the car of that kind of, because she knows what that is. But on that phone, it's like, okay, okay. And as soon as she does that, she's going to break down in that car. Agent Boomer, I want to remind you as you hang up with Tuck that your heart is racing and you are reminded that it is only these people, tuck, Hyde, Merritt, Samayal, and Warp, who bring this kind of strange feeling that when they call, you're both excited to hear from them and terrified.

You make the preparations and you leave as soon as you can. Agent Merritt. Yeah. Albany Rural Cemetery stretches 400 acres outside of Albany, New York. In a particular section of the cemetery, dedicated to fallen heroes in the line of duty, lies your former partner, Alan Pearson. You, Miranda, his former wife, and Gordy, his son, stand over his grave. A few months have passed.

Has Merritt's appearance or Demeter changed in any way? These last few months have been the eradication of everything that Merritt used to form as his identity. And so many of the things that kept the seams together have come apart. And he's frayed at the edges. He is haggard, dark circles about his eyes. He looks a lot gaunter and a lot older than he should. At his age, he is wearing some five o'clock shadow that is unlike him, and his hair has grown to an unnatural length that Miranda has said she enjoys,

but he can't stand to look at in the mirror. And he's not dressing the same. He's no longer in his suits and formal wear. wherever he goes. And even here in the cemetery, he's wearing a Columbia University sweatshirt over a pair of slacks that are half-wash. You're there to lay flowers at Allen's tombstone. Miranda stands there with a bouquet in one hand, Gordy in the other. And as you are standing there silently, Gordy is acting out a little bit. He seems disinterested to be there. He's making noises, he's pulling on his mother, being a little bit of a nuisance. What do you do? Gordon. Gordon.

What? Eyes up? Can you look at me in my eyes? Do you see me? Yes, I see you. Do you know where you are? Can I play with my Game Boy now? No, I want you to look me in the eyes and I want you to answer the question I gave you. That's a sign of respect. Do you know where you are? Yeah, I'm in a graveyard. In front of whose grave? Mom, I want to play with my Game Boy now and Morandi. No, there is a time and a place for that, Gordon, and for right now, I'd like to see some respect. Miranda speaks up and says, Orson, it's fine. He's never going to learn if we keep using every opportunity to employ his feelings over any sign of respect. She dips down to Gordy and says, go to the car. You can play it with the Game Boy. We'll be there in a second.

He lets go of her a hand and runs, you know, about 10 feet away where the car is idling. She places the flowers and says, look, Gordon is starting school soon. I need him to be ready in the morning. And I don't think these early morning runs that you have him doing, I think we need to have them pause for a little while until he gets back into his school schedule. Is that all right? Mira, we talked about this. He needs discipline if he's going to stay sharp.

I mean, those things can only help in an educational basis. I mean, the fiscal education programs at a public school, are we telling jokes here? You're going to assume he's going to get everything he needs from the public education system? Orson, I appreciate this, this, you know, an intention of yours, but I think I know my son and I just, I think he needs a little bit of time to just get back acclimated to school. He can continue doing things with you like hikes and stuff like that, but you know what? Just, can you give me a minute? I just want to be alone here for a second. Is that okay? Sure. Sure, I can leave you here.

Fine, but this conversation needs to continue because if you're not careful, he's going to grow up into someone that believes that every answer can be... Every answer can be soft. It's just not true in a world like this. The brisk wind blows past you and, you know, you go by the car. Eventually, she seems to have her piece at the tombstone and makes it back to the car. Or do you spend any time at the Tombstone alone? I think I do take a walk up to Alan's grave. And rather than flowers, he leaves, like a Dunkin' Donuts coffee cup with the heat

sleeves still on. And it's signed for Alan's name. And he leaves it there squarely at the center of the gravestone. He takes a few steps back and he smooths out his sweatshirt the most he can to seem formal. And you know, it has been so long since we last saw each other. And I can't remember what you were wearing that day. But I remember thinking that I had never seen someone working in law enforcement who cared so little about the way they look. And I just, Alan, I wish I was still in a world where that was an issue for me.

I wish there was a world where the biggest questions were not what I'm going through now. And I wish you could have come with me. I know what we saw in that forest changed both of us, but God, I wish that you had just been a little more understanding. I wish you could stand right here because at least when we were standing next to each other, things made sense. And I had answers for things, and I knew who I was supposed to be. And if I didn't, you guide me.

You'd tell me where to go. because right now I don't know where the fuck I am, and I'm just hoping that one day you will tell me again. And there is radio silence. And I just hope that whatever you are now, you can forgive me. Because I'm starting to believe what all of them tell me they are. What everyone tells me, I am.

I miss you. I think Miranda honks the car, and you make your way back over to it. I assume you're driving. Yes, always. Painfully slow. On the way out, there is a barricade that keeps you from the normal exit.

There is no visible reason as to why this exit is barricaded. There are no pothos, no construction, and there is a wide swath that you could easily cut around the barricade and exit, but the sign of the barricade is pointing you towards an alternate exit. Which do you take? I'm going to take the alternate exit. There seems to be some sort of detour. It'll be quick.

I follow the signage. Sure enough, it leads you through the front entrance of the graveyard. You continue driving in the car, and now Gordy is unbuckling his seatbelt. He's kicking the seat. He's saying, I'm hungry. I want to eat something. I'm hungry. Miranda's reaching back.

Put the seatbelt on. Do you know how fast cars go? Even at 40 miles per hour, these are some of the most dangerous things you can be a part Please just put this. Orson, you don't need to scare him. It's fine. Gordy, just put your seat back on, please. Seatbelt back on.

He continues. It takes a toy and throws it in the front seat. It's just being a complete nuisance. If you act out one more time, I think we're going to have to discuss screen time. We're going to have to discuss where and when we can play with these toys and whether they have a place for it inside of motor vehicle, Gordon. Are you listening?

Orson, this is my son. Please do not tell him what to do. I will punish him. Please, before you can respond, you realize that you are about to miss the exit on the highway. You can either make a drastic move right now, or you're going to miss it. Do you risk the chance, or do you follow the rules of the road? I follow the rules of the road. There's children in the car.

He doesn't have a seatbelt on. I'm going to slow down even more and take the exit. Miranda asks if we can stop for food. Stop for food? Where? We're not even close to the house. It's going to take me a half hour to cook something. Can let's just find a grocery store or something.

I just want to get him a sandwich. Sure, sure. A sandwich. Yes, pump him full of that. Yes, absolutely. And I'll pull off and drive towards the nearest grocery store. You do that. And as you are walking into the grocery store, your cell phone rings.

And it's Tuck's number. What do you do? What? Excuse me. One second, Rand. I'll catch up. And I go into like the restroom of the target we're in or whatever. I get into the last stall farthest from the door,

and I answer the call. Like Boomer, you hear Tuck, distraught, scared, fumbling through her words, and she explains to you a completely impossible situation regarding her missing sister in Yosemite National Park. What stands out to you is she's explaining the situation and is completely ignoring OPSEC. She mentions calling all the other agents and how she's got to get off the phone,

but if you could please find her in Yosemite, could you assist? Listen, I will be right there, but we should modify language. Do you hear yourself? You need to be careful because you don't know. Do you know what's at stake here when we're talking about what we're talking about? I just want you to breathe. I want you to take a few seconds and remember protocol. Because the wrong protocol means the wrong person is listening.

Of course, of course. and this is a genuine caution, not one done out of superiority. I'm going to be there. I will be on a plane the first I can, probably a red eye tonight if I can make one. But you need to keep it together for you and for her. What? I'm thinking that you're putting your entire world in one place.

Okay, okay, we'll have to discuss with Hyde. The extra provisions we'll be taking for security. Only for so long. I will do everything in my power to make sure that we make out of this, but it's a long shot. I hope you know. Oh, I know. I'm going to see you soon. Please make sure that you eat and you drink plenty of water.

Agent Tuck merits warning about Opsic. How do you modify these calls? Tuck does make the remaining three calls, and her tone is still intense. and a little manic, but she finds a way to talk around specifics of who it is and what is exactly going on. I think Tuck just says something to the tune of the case that I brought to the group has had a new lead. And if we could convene in its location, that would be ideal. Orson, you step out of the bathroom and you find Miranda. She has found an egg salad sandwich for Gordy and they are in checkout.

Miranda, I think that what you were saying about the runs before school, the hikes after school, the food, the discipline, all of it. I understand where you're coming from. And I think that maybe you're right. Maybe that this is all becoming a little too much. Maybe we became domestic far sooner than we had any intention. to because we're going through something that cannot be explained. A grief cannot be explained, really, in any certain terms. I'm thinking maybe that you and I need to take some space while you reevaluate whether this

is something that you want. Now, Orson, are you breaking up with me in the middle of a target? No, no, no, no, not in a breaking up. No, I just think that maybe some space, maybe some understanding that I am maybe not the best influence on the boy in his egg salad sandwich. Maybe if I were farther removed and I wasn't sleeping in your study, that maybe you'd like me more. Orson, I like you just fine. I, well, can we talk about this a little bit later, please?

What was that phone call about? We can't talk about this later. I need to leave tonight. You need to leave? Yes. Where are you going? California. How long are you going to be gone? I don't know.

I have been. I have been given a special consideration by a team of lawyers on my case, my disbarment, my loss of career. Okay. I'm going to speak with them on whether I have a chance for retrial and see if maybe I can get my job back. That's good. That's very good. And I don't know how long that's going to take. What is your score in human intelligence? Oh, 80.

Miranda is relieved, and as you go through checkout with her and return to the car with her, you start to realize it's not just relief over your job. It's relief that you're going to be gone for a couple of days. I think that a level of merit is shaking from the conversation with Miranda and the look in her eyes, knowing that it's yet another person that is just sick of being around him for the sheer sake of who he is. He takes maybe three or four double takes in the target watching passerbyes. He gives that little white man smile to some of the families coming in through the entrance and nods towards one of the guests.

And there in the parking lot, just a few two lanes in far from where he parked, because, of course, he parks as far away as he can to make sure his car is safe. As Miranda struggles to put Gordon back in the vehicle, you are standing alone with the cart, left with the decision everyone must make when visiting the grocery. Do you bring the cart to the nearest corral? or do you leave it propped up against a parking block? He leaves the cart unattended in a free parking spot where someone will have to move it just to park there.

And his hands are shaking for a moment. It takes him maybe five minutes before he can even let go of the cart knowing that what he's doing is not fair to someone else. You make your preparations? Any special plans before you get on your way? I do put in a call to Alvin Bradham at the prison number that I know how to reach him. I give him a load down on where I'm going to be going,

that the weekly calls will be stopping, that I care about him, I still love him, and I'm looking forward to seeing him again when I come back. And then I think I will also write a letter to the FBI, another appeal, in my name that is a version of four other letters I've sent in the past few months, and it's just gotten longer since the last. It reads first per my last correspondence,

and it provides as much evidence as I've compiled. It puts theories against my place, the scene of the crime, of my involvement, the casings and the bullets, the theft of my weapon, and my police record, everything, in an attempt that maybe someone will hear me. And you make sure to mail that off before you leave. Agent Merritt, would you have contacted Semayle during your time off and warn him about hoax? Yes. I do believe there was a call into Samiel. I assume you give him the broad strokes.

And in your research, you have discovered... She's an avatar of Nyarlatou, I think was the direct... information I got. So I would definitely reference that directly so he had all the information possible. As to whether Samayle heeds your advice is unfortunately unknown to you, as he never gets back. In fact, Tuck, after reaching the others, you try Sam, but he never picks up and goes to voicemail. God damn it, Samayle. I go back to packing up all my stuff. I make sure I grab all the stuff from like the second box and all like the extra. little Mia things that I have left over. Warp, you are hunched over, inhaling deep, labored breaths.

You can see the sweat rolling down the crook of your nose. You are alone in the same room as Agent Hyde. Explain to us why you are there together. Yes, this is one of several self-defense classes that have been going on probably since we got back to our lives, it was probably a few weeks of adjustment. And then I think Warp made a phone call about purchasing a knife and has not stopped calling Hyde about what to do with it, how to hold it, asking if certain YouTube videos are right, just sending whole 30, 40 minute YouTube videos and being like, is this good at any time of the day?

And it just became, we just need to meet up and figure it out. You return to the mat where Hyde is waiting for you with a dummy knife and you return to practice. Warp, could you explain, has there been any significant changes in your appearance or demeanor since we last saw you? Almost no physical changes whatsoever. I think her hair's a little bit longer. And the little patch, at first it was one braid that was bleached. And I think there's like an entire back part. Like she got as far as the back part can be bleached without her feeling like she's going to hell.

And her demeanor is a little bit more confident. Nothing to show for it whatsoever. But she feels like enough, like mundane days have happened to where she can kind of predict what's going next. The last we saw you, you attempted to take a knife skills class and did not do very well. You succeeded on the role, which means you didn't learn anything. Because you have asked Hyde specifically for help, I will allow you to roll a D-10. You can add that to your melee score, as Hyde is showing you precisely how to inflict as much damage as quickly as possible. That's a four.

Hyde, give us an update on yourself. Have you changed in your appearance or demeanor at all? I mean, Hyde definitely has stayed fit and probably is even more fitter because they have more time. Even though they have brown skin, they seem like they've been outside more often. so they've got like a level of sun to their skin. They have, their hair's a little bit shorter. They're definitely, they adopted a undercut while they're in the middle of the suspension

because it's definitely out of regulations, but they don't really care. But it's enough to keep a ponytail at the top. She's standing on the mat. Other than that, hide is pretty much the same, though the poly tattoo that she has has this really red, like jagged cut crossed of it from where Warp,

knife them. It's pretty much healed, but it's in that angry scar phase where it's just like red, but Hyde doesn't seem to be minding it. For shits and giggles, let's have you both make a contested melee role, and let's see how you do. Beautiful. That's a success with a 29. That's a success with a 28. The highest score wins, so though Hyde is able to, in the end, kind of pin you or place their knife close enough to indicate that the bout is over. You put up a hell of a fight warp. She has taught you well,

and she has taught you how to be lethal. Good. Good. See what you did in the box? You stayed at the box. You didn't go too far, no hard swings. That was, I feel so good. Oh, incredible. Incredible.

But remember, you're only using this for self-defense. There's no reason for you to be going out. and knife in people. Of course not. I mean at the same time many people have come in here to knife me, so. Are you talking about? No, no, I'm talking about the man that there was a breaking and entering a while ago, don't worry about it. And it won't happen again because I almost defeated a whole military person, so I feel good about it. Well, as long as you keep up with it, you should be fine. Hyde, you can heal your cell phone buzzing from your back back. Oh, hold on. I go dig through bag and I pull it out.

It's tuck. Uh, hello. You are given a impossible story and a request to please come and help. You're, the warps here, just put it, I put it on speaker. Next, um, uh, it's in the location that the case I brought to the group took place in nineteen, 1996. I have no idea what that is. what that is. Do you have accessibility to maybe pin it? We're in California and, you know, we can...

Great. You're at the same state. You're at the right state. We're in northern California. You should come to where I am. It's not exactly there, but it might be helpful. Okay. We'll, um, you know where I'm talking about, Warp, right? Yes. You, you tell Hyde and we'll, uh, we'll, we'll, um, we'll meet there. I really need to go. Okay. I really need to go. Thank you. I, I, Thank you. All right. Hang up. So what is that all about?

We need to go to Yosemite. Well, first I need to go home. And then eventually we will go to Yosemite. What's in Yosemite? We can talk about it on the way, but we need to... Tuck has a sister, and she might be in Yosemite. We need to figure that out, exactly. Okay.

You both get on your way, and... And you are in fact in Northern California. You're a handful of hours away from Yosemite. Are we at my house? We'll say that yes, your home is nearby, so that you could absolutely return home and grab whatever things you need. I would assume that since high to stateside, they probably already have a go bag.

Is the plan for the two of you to drive to Yosemite? Yeah. Yeah, probably. That is what you do. Agent Tuck. The last few hours have been a blur. a haze, you're just, you're like floating through life. Still in shock, but having to keep it together.

One moment you're in the car, frantically making phone calls. One moment you're at the airport, Ruhi doing most of the work to check in the luggage. The next moment you blink and you're in the plane high up of the ground. Would you care to describe Tuck? Has their appearance changed in any way since we last saw them? Yeah, she's, uh... She's a little bit thinner, a little bit frailer. She is working to get back to like a healthy physicality.

It's taking a little time. Her hair, which used to be up in really like tight, secure ponytails, she's only just gotten to the point that she can reach high enough to put it in a really sloppy like half bun. So instead of being like the controlled ponytail that it has been, it's a much like softer half bun. All of her shirts are button downs and usually. flannel. She does use a cane

pretty regularly. She stopped wearing her wedding ring around her neck and it's back on her finger now though the chain is still there. And her face is, it's a little sharper on the angles, but it's still the same tuck for the most part. You're sitting in your seat,

it's an aisle seat, lost and thought, just sort of being there. And a small child runs past you in the aisle. It's a little girl, Their parents call back to them and they stop and they look at you. And you swear, it's Mia. What do you do? Tuck, as their eyes kind of focus,

looks at the kid, swears it's Mia and just freezes. The child notices you staring and their face just sort of stops being Mia. And for a moment you realize it's just a little blonde girl. And she runs off back towards her parents. Give me a sanity check, please. check please. Yeah, I still love that coming. Okay.

Ooh, that's a failure. You're going to lose one sanity. Yeah, I have hit my breaking point on this plane. Your stomach begins to churn, and it hurts. Like, it really hurts. You start feeling nauseous, and you look up to see that the bathroom light is green. What do you do? I immediately get up and just break for the bathroom.

I don't think it's even, like, subtle at this point. Ruhi is asleep beside you and doesn't even notice that you get up, but you race into the bathroom, close the door, and lock it. Tuck, the pain has shifted into a kind of warmth, as if your whole body is about to light on fire. And you look in the mirror of the bathroom and you can see that there are blue veins growing and riding up the side of your neck and into your cheeks. You are about to scream when you are flooded with a wave of euphoria. There is this snap into reality, a kind of clarity that you have not had in months. All of the medication and the pain and the confusion and the anger and the frustration, all of that just washes away.

and you are the most clear-headed that you have been in the last 48 hours. Time almost seems to slow. You are staring back at yourself in the mirror, and the tuck on the other side of that mirror leans in and says, you are going to California to bring back your sister. You will succeed, and anything or anyone that's... stands in your way will be met with ruin. The euphoria subsides, as do the blue veins.

They recede into your neck, and you return to yourself. Tug, please roll a D-10. A two. You may add that to your constitution score permanently. What? Incredible, that means my health goes up by one. What is your current constitution score? Eight now.

So my health goes up to... Nine, yeah. Wow. You look back into the mirror and fades away and you feel okay. You step out of the bathroom. And as you are walking back to your seat, the pain is, it's almost not even there anymore. You almost feel normal. You realize you're using your cane out of habit more than anything. Do you make this known?

Rue's still sleeping. Yeah, as you return to the seat, Rue is still asleep. Her kind of head is resting. against the window. I think I sit down and I look at her and I think about everything she's been through the last

few months with me and everything I've put her through. And I just reach over and wind my fingers between hers and rub my thumb against her wedding ring. I let her sleep. But I tell myself

I'm going to tell her later. Tuck, you've hit a breaking point so we're going to gain a disorder. And I think, and I'd like your opinion on this, one of the best options is the disorder of megalomania. The reason I feel this way is because the way you felt inside there, the way you felt in that bathroom, you've never felt like that,

maybe in your entire life, and this confidence that you haven't had in months is suddenly with you, and it is empowering you. I don't think Tuck reads it as megalomania in themselves at all. I think they read it as, like, I can do this. I know the situation is shit. I know there's literally no way I can explain this to Mia that's going to make sense to her.

But I, this is, if nothing else, my life has led to this, and this is what I'm going to do. Eventually, all of your planes will land on schedule, probably slightly different times. I think that the first to possibly arrive at Yosemite would be warp and hide, but is there any kind of coordination made between the six of you?

As soon as I land, I'm just going to text Tuck. I think Tuck's going to go get our sister before anything else. Before any of the team can talk her out of it, before any of the team can have an opinion on it. Tuck's going to go and get our sister and tell the others, like, just landed, picking up Mia. We'll send a meat spot soon. So the rest of you understand that Ruhi and Tuck are on their way to Yosemite.

you're all landing very early in the morning. So it's going to take her a couple of hours. It's going to take you a couple of hours. Do the rest of you rendezvous together, or are you just kind of caravanning separately and getting there when you can? Yeah, I know Merritt would wait for the others. When he does get the text that she's going for Mia,

there's a string of text from Merritt saying that this is a bad idea, that she's considered to be an asset. We don't know what's going to happen. if she isn't what we think she is, it's very dangerous, but of course, that's all going to be ignored. But he is going to text Samayel and Boomer and see if they want to meet up in Carpool, so they only have to rent one car. Boomer will response, but also, if that's true on the group chat, if I see it, I'm going to end it with, we're in danger, GIF on the end of that thread just to add on to that. And I'll be, I'll pick up a rental car and I'll give you my location.

I guess if Warp and Hyder the first ones to Yosemite, they'll try to secure a living situation or a place to stay. Yeah, because I'm like, my house is three hours away from Yosemite. That would be the place to go like from the airport. But if we're all going straight to the park. Yeah. Are we staying in the park proper or are we getting like a place outside of Yosemite? Yeah, I feel like something like 30 minutes out. be safe. Okay. Yeah. You can find a hotel or an Airbnb 30 minutes outside of Yosemite. You find

yourselves all four of you there. It's kind of shocking to see each other again, especially without some kind of more formal setup. Usually the program likes to send cryptic messages and things like that. This is all getting dangerously informal. Just so I'm just clear, what does merit look like? Is he, I was going to say, like, is he even at all attempting to, Oh, he's way more disheveled than you've ever seen him before. It's probably still pretty, like, dressed up compared to anyone off the street. But it is uniquely uncharacteristic of merit, and he's got a lot of five o'clock shadow and longer hair. Oh, you're rocking the scruffy.

Yes, that's very astute of you to notice. Retirement's treating me. I told you, you could work for me as security. You're the one that went on. I don't think I could work security for an IT company. I don't know what I would be defending against. You'd be defending against your own homelessness, bro. That's all right, Boomer.

Thank you for the very, very kind gesture, but I have plenty of savings from years of careful spending. I think I can float for the time being. That's a funny way of saying that you haven't done shit. Well, I've done plenty. I've been working my own case to see if maybe, They'll reconsider the decision that they've made. And I've been working on myself.

And have they? No, but we're in the process. We're making moves. We're making waves. It's not an easy thing to petition the FBI. No. I can make a call for you, though, if you like. You really think you could do that?

You think you have a way in? Fortunately, I do know some people in D.C. Sure. If you want to make a call on my behalf, of course, you're not required to do any of that, but if you could. Go get a shape, too. You're not really pulling it off. I was just trying to be nice.

Wow, it's so good to see all of you again. I got your, let's get some coffee, let's go. Mug. Missed you too. You want a Starbucks run? I would have just said that to see if he would have gotten a little clenchy as I pulled out there. We're off budget, so whatever you would like to pay out of your own wallet, that is completely up to you. I've heard that you've done very well for yourself, so maybe you can afford to run the mission accounting this time around. You are all reminded that if this was a mission, there might be.

be some parameters such as locate this child, identify if this child really is Amelia Moore, determine whether there is an unnatural threat in the area, and if possible, either remove it or keep it there. And as always, try and make the outcome appear mundane. Personally, I'm a fan of this freeform style. I like having not to report to a mom. It's kind of scary though, isn't it? The thought that we're really just on our own out here. Think of it is like we're a solo act. We are now breaking away and are on our own. Only for as long as they let us.

Warp has muffins because you start missions with muffins and is passing them out to everyone. I do think it's important to discuss exactly what we're doing with this child. Since there isn't anyone telling us what to do with it, I understand Tuck wants to keep it alive. But what if it shouldn't be? What do we do? Can we just, would it be at all possible to convince them to just get a cabin and never leave and be there forever? What, like the Bauman family? We saw how well that worked out.

Okay, first of all, I said let them stay there. Because, I mean, if you're staying there, then it's all... Listen, I understand the predication to treat this with kids' gloves, considering what the child, but we need to understand that there's no guarantee that any of this is what we seem. Of course, Haley is going to think one way because she is the closest to this assignment. That's why the rest of us need to think in the opposite direction twice as far, because if it's not a child, if this is not a child that is suddenly come back from the 90s, the same exact age that she left, which, let's be honest,

the odds of that being something fruitful for the rest of us are so slim we might have. we'll go back to Lansing. If it's not, we need to be prepared for what has to be done. I mean, I don't even know why we're having a discussion about it. We know what we have to do regardless of whether or not she is or not a child. She just popped out of nowhere. So, you know, that's got to be addressed. Look, we don't have a handler, so we don't need to do a damn thing.

Just because we don't have a handler doesn't mean that we just don't abide by the rules and regulations of, like, understanding that this shit exists in the world. Right. Yes and no to all of that because if it is, in fact, a demon child or a skeletor child or something of that nature. Skeletor child? Yes. You're not just going to call the next of kin if the child is only made of bones. Listen, I'm with Hyde.

We need to act as though there are protocols on this mission. We need to at least conduct with our own set of rules, not just for the moral quandary of all this, but for the express concern that rules keep us safe. And there's also the consideration that while she is dropped back in here, she was brought here by something. There's more to this than the child. Then let's make sure, let's just get her checked. Well, how about this? We don't even know what we're dealing with first. If it is a child, let's not talk about murder or mayhem.

But if it's not, most likely I agree, it's not. We will proceed from there because that's why we're here. Make sure talk is taken care of first before we hand. handle anything, because this is technically still not a mission. So who are we here for? We're here for Haley. That's who we're here for. We don't have a safe house or anyone to find a safe house if things go bad, and almost

every time we've gotten together, they go bad. So let's not do anything half-cocked. We're also low on technical aspect when it comes to research. Anything that we ascertain on what this creature is and what brought it here has to come from us directly. There's no calling home to see what they know. Yes, it's almost like you don't have someone who has access to computers or technology. Boomer absolutely can help and does.

She has been doing a little bit of research during the months off, and she forwards to all of you two news articles that stand out. These are articles that are separate from all of Amelia S. Moore's missing person's case, the FBI case, which should also be shared with. you. But there are two very interesting articles that Boomer shared with Tuck and believes are in some way or another related to what's happening. You eventually all pile into a car and make your way. We'll say, unless you guys would prefer, that you all travel in one car, yes? Yeah. I'll make sure you have rented a big, like an actual, like large SUV. Your journey

begins with a several-hour drive through the Great Vine of Northern California. The highways turning to winding roads that lead through lush green forests with the occasional glimpse of a river or a stream. As you get closer to the park, the trees start to thin out and the landscape becomes more mountainous. The road starts to climb and you encounter switchbacks and hairpins as you ascend the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The higher you go, the more dramatic the views become.

Eventually, you are surrounded by towering granite cliffs, and you might even catch a glimpse of a waterfall or two or three in the distance. I cannot stress enough how impressive and majestic Yosemite National Park is. It is the summer, so it is hot, it is humid, and the buzzing of insects is always audible. As you enter the park, you pass through the front gate, you give them your information, and they inform you on how to get to the Hedge Hetch Heshi Reservoir where Mia is being kept. On your way, they do warn you that a stormfront is hitting that portion of the park and to pull out your rain jackets and your umbrellas.

As you pass by the visitor center, there are a couple of visitors, mostly day hikers, but we are in the middle of COVID and Yosemite opened back up again in June. So they are keeping it very limited to how many people are in here. As you continue driving, you are greeted with some of the most iconic and breathtaking views that you can find in the park. There is El Capitan and Half Dome, as well as other granite formations like Cathedral Rocks, Royal Arches, and Clouds Rest. The road takes you through various valleys and meadows, such as Yosemite Valley, Mariposa Grove, and Tulum Meadows. It takes an hour once you reach the park just to get to the Hedge Hetch Heshi Reservoir. This place is enormous.

You're deep into the land when you notice that your cell phones are no longer working, and it's just you in the occasional deer or squirrel that you might catch along the road. And you do see them. The lack of people has attracted animals into more of the areas where you might normally see people. Eventually, you do reach the northern portion of the park and the Hedge Hetch Heshoe Reservoir. And here, the weather does begin to change. It's cloudy and clearly threatening to rain. The sun is blocked by dark clouds,

and you can see rain hitting some of the mountains. As you enter the storm, the mood begins to change, and from this idealic scenery, we enter a kind of dark, somber place. Eventually, you reach the Rancheria Falls Ranger Station where Mia's being kept. The station is two levels, with enough space between it and the tree line to fit a helicopter or maybe half a dozen cars.

There is a radio tower on the side of the building and a pole which seems to be running power from the Oshanasi Dam that is to the northwest. If you listen closely, you could hear the dam in the distance. It's about a half a mile away. But once you all pull up and we'll start with Tuck first, it begins raining. We'll say about 10 minutes after Tuck arrives, the rest of the group arrives. So, Tuck, you arrive first. It is a kind of very light sprinkle of rain once you get here. What do you do?

I think I reach over and squeeze Rue's hand. Um, are you ready? We got this, okay? It's gonna be okay. Yeah, yeah, it will, it will. I feel, I feel ready. I actually feel like better than I have in a long time. That's good. Good. I'm here for you, okay? I love you. I love you. You're amazing. We're going to be amazing. This is going to be amazing. We, I mean, it's maybe not the way that we thought we were going to raise a kid, but, you know.

There's a pause from her, but she almost kind of ignores the comment and grabs an umbrella and steps out of the car. Tuck grabs a second little messenger bag that's only partially full and slings it over her shoulder and gets out. You step out and as you are walking towards the building, a woman steps out onto the porch. There is about a 20-foot porch there and windows lights coming out of it. It is dark here so a lot of lights are on inside and on the porch. This woman is dressed as a ranger in green and khaki fatigues. Seems to be of Spanish, possibly native descent. And she's wearing a poncho covering her head and her body.

And she comes running out to you in the rain. And she says, hi, can I help you guys? I'm Haley Moore. You called me about the child you found. Yes, yes. Oh, my God. Yes, hello. Oh, my name is Tomika. I am the ranger that found Mia.

I think we spoke on the phone. Thank you. Yes, yes, please. Please come inside. Come inside. And she gestures for you to come inside the building. It's small and it's tight, but it is a working ranger station. You can see that the windows that face the porch are kind of built like a kiosk window where you can raise some wooden slats and if hikers want, they can come up and ask questions of the rangers. The inside is cozy and warm.

There are blankets on chairs and on the floor are rugs. Elk antlers on the wall. There are several computers and workstations, television. And in one corner of the room, there appears to be another man who is on the telephone kind of listening. He's got his finger in one ear. He kind of turns and sees you and gestures towards Tamika, but he seems to be on the phone about something.

The second Tuck steps inside, her head is on a swivel, and she is looking for Mia. Yeah, I think Tomeca would notice that, and she would say, Mia is in one of the rec rooms. I'm sorry to do this, but could I just ask for some ID? Could I just kind of confirm you are who you say you are?

Of course, yes, that makes absolute sense, and Tuck will pat around and pull up. just their license. They're not even gonna pull out their FBI badge. It's just gonna be licensed. And this is my wife. She's, you can understand why she's here. Of course, yes, of course.

Hi, nice to meet you and Rueh introduces herself and is their usual charming self. Tomika seems like she's trying to remember all the protocol of what's happening and whatnot. And she says, you know, as I let the FBI know yesterday, I was near the devil's chair walking down checking on the backpackers campsite, picking up trash along the way, and I was wandering a Huckleberry field where I saw a little girl.

I saw Mia. She was nude, but seemed to be an okay health. She was coherent. I asked who she was. She was able to tell me. She asked for her mother and father. I brought her to this trail station to give a call to her parents. I was able to reach your father.

Eventually, I got to you, and here we are. I'm sorry. I assume you really want to see her, huh? Yes. Yes, please. I, yes, please. She leads you towards the back of the building. There are a couple of rec rooms.

There's a little kitchenette area. In this rec room, there's a pool table and chairs, a little stone fireplace. Seems like a place where the rangers, can relax and take a load off in between shifts or whether they're there for an extended period of time. Just before you move into the room, Tomika grabs the door and turns to you and says, the lights are off. She seems to be a little sensitive to the lights, so I turn them off.

But she's in there with someone from the CMC. Being an FBI agent, recognized the CMC. It is the Center for Missing Children. It is an organization that is a non-concary. that often works with the authorities in helping solve missing children or exploited children's cases. Tuck is, Tuck's just nodding along trying to get her to stop talking and desperately wants to push through the door. The door squeaks open. On a couch, across from you, maybe a dozen feet, are two people.

One of them is an older gentleman, dark skin, looks to be in his 70s, bald on top, short gray hair around. He's got a gray mustache, and he is dressed in business casual. He's got a shirt and tie slacks. And he seems to be engaging with a little girl, a little girl that looks exactly like Mia. He notices you, she notices you. She kind of goes to drawing on a little piece of paper that she has with some crayons and the gentleman stands and kind of brushes himself.

Tomika says, Joe, Joe DeWant, this is Hayes. Lee Moore. This is the... She looks to you as his mother? Um... Yes. Yeah. That's fine.

Joe takes a step back. It seems as if he has an experience with this situation. He knows that every ounce of you just wants to go to her. And so he doesn't impede that. So there is this quiet moment where you are at the threshold. What do you do? Mia. She looks up.

It locks sides with you and then kind of just goes back to drawing. Hey, um, um, do you remember how we used to have a safe word? Remember, remember our safe word? She nods. If I say our safe word, can I come over there? She looks up at you kind of quizzically. It looks like she's trying to read who you are exactly, but she nods. And tuck in a really rough, stilted accent, says,

one word in Italian. Like it hasn't crossed her lips since she was nine. Uh, Richio. The little girl smiles. She looks at Joe. She looks at Tamika. Like, she did it. She looks back at you.

But there's almost like this neat trick factor because she still hasn't made the connection and goes back to her drawings. Um, could we have a couple minutes alone? Um, I'm sure she's been through a lot, and I just need to, um, I need to explain some things. Of course, of course. Tamika kind of walks out and the older gentleman saunter's over to you. He's kind of taking his time, kind of because he has to. He's an older guy. He's in his 70s. And he says, uh, Mrs. Moore, I'd love to talk to you, uh, once you feel like you have a minute, okay?

Later, yes, later. Of course, yes. And he walks past you and closes the door behind him. I assume Ruhi is also in the room with you. Yeah, that's fine. Tuck kind of goes over and kneels in front of her. I have one of year old coloring books if you'd rather have that. She looks to see what you're referring to.

I reach into the bag and I leave it open so she can see all the stuff that's in it. And I pulled out like a half-completed. Rugrats coloring book that was left in the car from our trip that neither of my, neither of our parents really noticed. And I kind of tucked away when I was a kid. And I flipped to the page of Susie Carmichael that's like half done and pink and blue. And I kind of hold it out to her.

Her eyes light up and she says, this is mine. And she goes to take it. Yeah, I know. Thank you. Mia, do you know who I am? She shakes her head. It's, um, my name's Haley. That's my sister's name.

I know, that's... Kiddo, some people get to take the fast way to getting older. And some people take it slow. And you, you've gotten to take it slow. but I had to take it the fast way. I'm, it's, it's me, bud, it's, it's your Haley. It's not a different Haley. I'm the same Haley.

You're my sister? Mm-hmm, yeah. You're too old. I know, I feel too old. You are special. You've, you did something I couldn't do. Tucked your close up to her and you see that Her face has been cleaned, but her hair and her skin are filthy, her nails black.

It almost looks like she crawled out of the earth. She's filthy other than some Yosemite merchandise that they have put on her shirt and shorts. And, you know, she's got some, it appears that Joe has left her a little kind of go bag. There's snacks and crayons and things like that. I'm going to ask you to make a persuasion check as you speak to her. Failure, 70. You talk to her, you explain things to her, you show her photos, and like a six-year-old, she doesn't seem to quite get it yet. Yeah, that's fair.

You're having trouble kind of getting to the root of what you're trying to say, as if she might be a little too young to fully understand it. But there's this dreamlike quality to the situation, this soft, diffused light is coming in, through the windows, and you're reunited again with a person that you have not seen for 30 years, and there is something idealic about it. Eventually, Ruhi approaches. Yeah, I introduce Roo, and I try to explain that she's my wife, and I think slowly Tuck makes her way

through the bag that she's brought. There's like one of those anemone kush balls, and there's a hair clip, and there's a stuffed giraffe that looks like it seemed better days. And time kind of passes in this weird, idyllic way. And I will say that eventually the other agents pull up. The four of you pull up to a ranger station.

You can see that there are a couple of jeeps and forerunners parked outside. The rain is quite heavy at this point, much heavier than it was just a few moments ago or just a few minutes ago when Tuck and Rookey arrived. What do the four of you do? I'm not eager to go in there. Do we really have to? Are we just waiting for Haley to come out? Or tuck?

I think that maybe one of us should be in the room, given that we don't understand what this is yet. I just don't think that four adults need to show up for a child that's not ours. I know this is weird to say, but I wish we had the Catholic priest here with us. I think someone with security clearance, either you or me hide. I mean, I am also on that list. now, so...

What? Warp has been taking knife lessons. I'm trained in combat now. It's not a big deal. Oh, but congratulations. I look forward to seeing them in action. I don't think that qualifies as the security clearance. It's, guys, it's a kid.

I'll go. Anyone coming with? I'm a little hesitant to send you in, Boomer. You keep calling it a child. We have no guarantee yet. I think I'm with me. Okay, bye. Thank you.

Let's go inside. We'll go in because I will. want to see what's going on with all these hikers and stuff like that. Okay. You all walk inside. As you step onto the porch, you are stopped at the front door. A gentleman who was on the phone seems to be quickly finishing up, hangs up, and comes running over to you guys and says, yes, excuse me, can I help you guys?

Yeah, I'm so sorry. I'm here for a million more. I'm her uncle. Not by blood, but her uncle. I believe Haley Moore has already arrived here. You're all part of the family? Essentially, yeah. It's a found family, but it's ours.

Okay. And what's that got to mean? No, no, no, nothing, it's fine. I'm just, yeah, they're back that way. Thank you. Then I'm turning a mayor. Racism works. It was very good.

Keep laying on the racism thing. I won't be able to. I should take racism works. Waiting in the hallways. are two people. One is a dark-skinned older man and one is a woman of some kind of Spanish descent. It seems to be a park ranger and they're kind of half paying attention to the door past them but when you appear they notice you and approach you, introduce themselves. You introduce yourselves as part of the family and they mentioned that Haley is currently inside speaking to Nia.

Would you guys mind just waiting out here and we'll go in once they're ready? Of course. So it was it was recent you found her? I mean, this is a miracle that had happened whatsoever. I mean, what are the odds? But you found her recently? Tomika goes over the exact same turn of events that she explained to Tuck. She was out in the field just yesterday and found the girl. She, you know, says, yes, you're right, it is a miracle.

I'm just glad we're able to find her. Children go missing in Yosemite quite often. Did you? I'm so curious. on the location where you found her? Was there... Yeah, it's the devil's chair. It's just about a half a mile north from here, northeast.

Did you needn't see anything with her that could indicate where she was from, like how she survived? She didn't have any ID on her or anything like that. She was nude. She said her name was Amelia Moore, and well, I came back. I checked the records,

and sure enough, that was a name that was missing. It was a little odd of the time frame, So I did contact the local FBI, someone in San Francisco, and then they sent Joe, and she introduces Joe to want, and he puts his hand out to anybody that'll shake it. And Joe kind of takes over the conversation explaining that he's part of the CMC, that's sent her for missing children, and that he typically is here to assist with any legal questions. The CMC often assists family with counseling and legal assistance navigating the world of law enforcement, and he seems to be going over a little bit of a spiel. but he does say big family. We get that a lot. Agent, do you think I could take you down your information?

Yeah, he absolutely hands you his card, and he actually does not hand you a card from the CMC. He hands you an older business card that says Joe DeWant, Atlanta PD, detective retired. Are you a special consultant? Is this a personal interest? In what capacity are you working? Well, I'm with the CMC when I retired.

heard about the organization, like what they were doing. I was involved with a lot of missing children's case in Atlanta, so I took up the job. But the reason I'm here is because I happened to be on this side of the country, and my contact at the FBI asked if I could come check it out. I was close by, so I figured it was right up my alley, and when they sent me the paperwork, it was a hell of a case. I figured I'd come and check it out.

It's really kind of you. Are you two the only ones who have interacted with the child? Tomika speaks up and says, well, I mean, senior park ranger, Mr. Keena, Douglas Keena, the gentleman you saw at the door, he did interact with the child a little bit, but it's mostly me and Joe, yes. I'm going to turn to Merritt and say, I'm going to have a look around. Okay, Boomer. Boomer, you being one of a computer literate mind, you immediately notice a couple of computers in the front visitor center that are open. different systems that show maps and stuff. You do notice that there is a weather tracking app

that's in the process of showing the extreme weather that is blowing through this area. Can she take a look at the weather app and see where this storm is coming from all of a sudden? Sure. I'll come back to you in a second. All of you are noticing the weather is picking up. It's heavy, heavy rain at this point. The occasional rumble of thunder deep in the distance.

If it gets any heavier, it's going to be hard to drive out of here. Yeah, I'll text everybody inside and it was like, hey, storm's getting bad. We need to move before the roads get washed out. I assume Merritt you are attempting to enter the room with Haley. Yeah, yeah. Okay, Warp, do you want to go inside as well with Merritt? I do. The two of you step inside.

There's a quiet wrap at the door, Agent Tuck, and it cracks open, and you see the familiar faces of Merritt and Warp. Um, hi. Thanks for coming. Um, come in. I guess, but just, you know, take it easy. Sure. And I'll turn to Mia and I'll say,

some of my friends came to meet you too. They were really excited. They've heard a lot about you. And adorable but filthy six-year-old is sitting on a couch and kind of notices the two of you, but as a shy six-year-old would, kind of looks back down and goes back to their coloring. It's good to see you, Haley.

You too, Orson. Tuck, she seems to be a little bit more concerned with your attention. She keeps drawing you to the drawing and showing you the little updates that she goes. She seems to be taking the liking to you. Those are good. That's really good. Can you draw me? Do you draw me a hedgehog?

She starts meticulously working on it. And I'll stand up, but I still hover just like almost directly in front of her, almost like shielding her. Ruhi steps kind of out of the shadows and says hello to the two of you. She's seen you before. She's had dinner with you.

Because of the situation, she's not going to come and hug you, but you get that feeling like that's what she wants to do. She just nods her head towards you. Nice to see you, too. Mia, this is, my friend, and she'll kind of look at them, like, what do you, like, how do you want to, how do you want to do this name-wise and let them introduce themselves? Hi, Mia. My name's Orson. Can you say Orson? She looks at Tuck and smiles like, is he really going to make me?

She doesn't answer. She's six, not two. You never know. Limited communication. It's been a long time, Haley. You can call me gays, Mia. I don't understand exactly what you've gone through, but I understand enough. She doesn't seem to quite process what you're saying, but she shows Tuck, the very crude hedgehog she's drawn.

Oh, perfect. It looks great. That's incredible. I love the... line work. It's very advanced for your age. Can I see my parents now? Kiddo and Tuck kind of falters

for the first time and kind of looks at Rue. They're, um, well, dad's, dad's, dad's not feeling good right now. So that's why I flew out, remember? And mom, um, you know, I couldn't, I couldn't get a hold of mom.

She's, um, I'm not sure where she is right now, but you, um, She looks at Orson and gaze and says, are they going to take me to mom, to dad? No, baby, no. You're going to come with Rue and me for now, okay? She nods her head. I think we're all going to go back together, aren't we, Haley?

Yeah, yes. We'll all go back together. Good. We have some more friends outside. You'll meet them later. that everyone, everyone came to see you because we wanted to... It's been a long time, kiddo, and I want you to be safe. And that's all I care about is getting you home and safe.

We're not going to go to our old house. We're going to go to a new house for now. As you talk to her, she is looking at you in a different way, and she kind of sits up on the couch, and she grabs your shirt and brings you closer. and she starts kind of stretching your face out a little bit and lifting up your eyes and checking your mouth with her hands and at a certain point kind of while stretching it.

She says, I see you, Haley. It is you. Yeah, I told you. Oh, I miss you and she goes to hug you. Tuck immediately starts crying as soon as her little arms rock around her, and she just stands up and holds her and kind of breaks for a minute. I think she's been holding herself back. And not really, I think the desire to touch her has been there,

but it's that, it's that, you know, one, you don't want to touch a kid if they're not ready, like if they're not comfortable with you coming for them. And then also, it still didn't seem entirely real until Mia wrapped her arms around tuck. And she just kind of rocks her and walks to the back corner of the room as far away from everyone else as she can get

and just holds her. Listen, Haley, Rue, there's a storm brewing, and it's becoming really serious, especially for California out there. And if we want to get back to anywhere that we can have a conversation that I think we all need to have, then I think we need to leave now. This is just in the interest of everything being the best capability that we can. Maybe it would be best if you and Mia come in the car with the rest of us. We can send someone else with Rue and drive in the second car. There is a dramatic crack of lightning outside that draws all of your attention.

And it's almost as if the rain gets even worse. It is pounding the roof. I feel like we might have missed that chance. At the same time, there is a little bit of a commotion at the entrance. Those of you in the front portion of the visitor center, you witness 10, 15 hikers make their way out of the forest. out of the rain and into the visitor center. Many are carrying their camping gear. You also notice someone are a four-wheeler,

another ranger, a young blonde male who pulls up, jumps out, and runs inside as well. There's now a large group of people in this building, stomping their feet, drying off, and chatting nervously. Agent Boomer, you ignore the crowd and try to extrapolate the data you're reading on the display. It's quite an interesting,

interesting tale this app is telling you, and I'm going to share it with you now. Yup. I don't like those colors. You can see the Hetch-Hetchy reservoir area, the larger, greater area, which is, you know, many, many dozens of miles. And there appears to be a concentration in this area. And that's probably directly above us. Okay. I'm going to screencap this.

I'll send it in our thread, and I'll be like, sudden. change of weather. Nothing looking suspicious here, and then I'll send the pick. Sergio, I have, I have meteorology as a skill. Could I discern if that's like a natural kind of storm system to just be like here? What is your meteorological score? 40%. That's pretty good. Yeah, it, it, this is unusual. This is some, I mean, nobody wants to say impossible when it comes to the weather, but it's very, very unusual that a concentration of this kind is in such a small area. This is very strange.

And text back, it's not normal. Yeah. In that same moment, Tuck turns to Rue as the storm intensifies and goes, is this, is this normal? I guess our weather on the East Coast isn't the same as here, but have you heard of like spin-up storms like this before? This seems insane. Sure enough, Rue looks at the information and she even kind of pulls up a couple of websites she knows.

And, yeah, she corroborates. this is extremely unusual. It's kind of around that time that the door swings open and the somewhat assertive, obnoxious senior park ranger, Douglas Kina steps in and he says, and as he's speaking, there is a crowd of people going up the stairs, up to the second floor, and he says, folks, I'm real sorry,

but I just got a storm warning, a flash flood warning. We're going to have to keep you here until this storm subsides. You're welcome to join upstairs. I know that we have a sensitive situation here, but I, you know, I'll just, I'll let you, I'll keep you abreast once I know from the trailhead station back by the visitor center, whether it's okay to move out. Thank you.

I think we'll stay down here. You know, the noise and thank you. We'll stay down here. This is less than ideal. Yep, it's just, I'll turn to me, though. It's just a storm, though. We'll wait it out, and then we'll go somewhere else. And I turn to the other two and I say, should we get the rest of the Motley crew in here?

Sure. Yes. You all prepare to grab everyone else, and as you're doing it, tuck you offhandedly, I would say all of you who are in the room offhandedly say, or hear Mia say, sounds like where I sleep. What? That sounds like Greece. What do you mean?

There's water down there. Where I sleep. Where do you sleep, baby? In the blue... cave. Warp's going to sit down at the table that she was drawing at and start to draw herself and then ask, can you, can you show me what that looks like? I'm going to ask that you make a psychotherapy role. You can have plus 20, if any, more than just Warp is kind of being involved with this. I'll assist. Ooh, that's a pass with a 49 under 50. Again, she's not very verbal, but she does start to draw. She draws herself

At first you think it's like a crucifix position, but then you realize she's affixed to a cave wall. She paints the walls of the cave in blue, and she draws her face with a frown on it. And she draws a little toadstool at the bottom, and she says, I eat that. She points at the gray little mushroom. Well, she continues to draw, and there are these large, yellow figures. There's something jagged about the way. she draws them and they also have frowny faces. They're also double the size of the cavern.

She points to her drawing and there's two little children on that drawing. And she says, that's Evelyn and that's Thomas. They were with me down there. Evelyn and Thomas. Were they, um, did they eat the little mushrooms too? They fed them to us. Who fed them to you? the yellow people

it's hard for her even to nod her head at that but you get the intimation that yes she says I had a nightmare and the the strangers they fell down and I blinked and I was outside again

and then she found me and she points to Tomica they must have gotten tired and you decided to find your way back to us. So good job. These people that fell down, when they gave you these toadstools, did they make you feel weird? Do they make you feel silly or sleepy?

I didn't feel good. Like a tummy ache? I think I peeped. It's okay. We all peep sometimes. What about now? How do you feel now, Mia? I feel better. And she kind of grabs Haley's hand. That's good. Better is good. That's good, because Haley's going to keep you safe.

We're all going to work really hard to make sure that you are the safest person on the planet. The rest of the agents, if you have not already, are able to step in and be a part of this. If you have any questions or want to speak to Mia, inspect her, anything like that. I was just watching from the back. Yeah, I think Tuck, like, gestures around and kind of lets everyone introduce himself however they want to. And if they don't, she'll just say, these are. These are my friends. We're all here to keep you safe.

That's, you know. I'm, uh, Boomer's going to get down on her, like, knees next to you and be like, hi, Mia. Nice to meet you. She smiles at you. Wow. That's really good art. Can you can you show me some more?

She nods and starts working on something else. I'm going to kind of be more distracted with, because I'll, to let tuck catch everyone else up I kind of, wow, that's great. I kind of slide the drawing of the cave away and hold it up for hiding there to see. I go to my phone very quickly and I pull up that Martindale Mummy's article and I'm just going to peel in enough

that I can show the depiction of the mummy. And I go, Mia, you know, I think I have a drawing that might look a little like those figures you have. Does this look? like anything to you? Mia's going to make a sanity check. Don't break my baby sister. She looks at the cell phone and just kind of pauses,

and you see this thousand-yard stare, and she just kind of slumps back and stops responding. What the fuck did you do? Boomer has been looking into this for the past few months. I'm going to start, like, touching her face and trying to, like, one, like, low-key checker temperature, because I remember about the, like, the article where it said, like, raise temperatures,

but also just trying to like gently, gently bring her back to us. Okay. She almost seems to be kind of returning into this kind of fetal position. She just keeps becoming more and more insular. You scoop her up, you try to snap her out of it. Takes about a solid 10 minutes before she stops blankly staring into the distance and eventually looks back up at you. Is it still just the, I guess, eight of us in here?

At this point, it is six, seven of you. I would say that Joe is very much trying to remain part of the conversation and remain present. Tamika kind of comes in and out addressing the hikers and the other rangers. So there's a little bit of movement, but not a lot. Tuck's definitely been trying to keep the drawing and everything they talked about on the low and out of Joe's periphery, but is still pretty occupied with Mia and also like, checking back in with Rue because there's so many new people. Joe approaches eventually Merritt.

Joe, this older gentleman says to you, Merritt, listen, when you guys get the chance, I have a contact who actually told me about this, mentioned that this was on their radar. I believe Mr. Keena in there called her. Her name is Delilah Sands. She's a FBI based out of San Francisco. Joe, I think you should consider, your family should consider giving her a call.

She's, I've worked with her before, and she seems to be really good at these kinds of abnormal cases, especially ones like this that have been cold cases for a while. Might be worth communicating with her. Thank you so much, Joe. That really means a lot to us. Any information we could get on both sides, we just want to see that this doesn't happen to another kid. Joe, do you mind if I ask you a question? You got nothing but time, sure.

You've been working with the Center for Missing Children for a while, you said? Yeah, yeah, a couple years now, pretty much since I retired. Can't keep still. I feel the same way. I'm in a similar boat right now. I'm just trying to find what happens afterwards, you know? You work every day of your life and then they take it away. Like, it was just nothing, right?

Anyways, you think this happens a lot of national... Parks, not just Yosemite. The statistics don't lie. There is a lot of disappearances that happen in different parts of the world. Certainly national parks are no different. Yosemite's an unusual case. There's been a lot of disappearances in and around the area. Why do you ask?

Well, I just became so obsessed when Mia went missing. I mean, she's like the glue that holds this family together, and it became huge to all of us. And I have an inquisitive mind. I love true crime documentary, so that sort of fueled my fire. And I started going looking, you know, and there's information. There's some articles written on things like this, but eventually you hit a brick wall, and that brick wall is some sort of an agreement that was signed between, like, the Center for Missing Children and another agency.

God, I can't even remember the name of the MPC or something like that. And all that information is just behind a locked door. Can they really do that to the public? Not share what's on the other side of that? Well, we have to protect identities, things like that. Sometimes, you know, people's privacy is important to them. Let me ask you a question. Are you military or?

Former law enforcement. Former law enforcement? You retired a little early, huh? Yeah, I took a shot to my leg and now got sort of a bum-knee situation. I was walking with a cane all of last year, and I still want to work. But God, if they found one way to keep a cop down, and that's not, being able to walk. I noticed a limp when you came in, yeah.

I got shot at a couple times myself, hit once or twice. Well, hey, you're still working at this age. You have to consider you're one of the luckiest cop still alive. Yeah, I guess you could say that. Let me ask you this, and you don't have to answer anything for me, but from one retired cop to another, you'd probably have access to that information.

You're on the other side of things, right? I was sent me as FBI files, yes. That's what you mean. Yeah, just the stuff. they might share with the article folks, the academics, you know? I don't know if I know anything you don't already know, Mr. Moore. That's fair. I'm just not blood-related.

Me and Haley don't look anything alike. That's okay. You're an uncle through marriage, or... Yeah. Go ahead and give me a deception check of some kind. Let's confirm what that could be. Sure. Family of choice, baby.

I hope you can lie with. I think just a general charisma check, please. God bless America. Yeah, I come under with an 18. I think the fact that you are familiar with the law, the criminal law world, you're able to charm him and keep him from asking too many questions about yourself

and you're always kind of redirecting the conversation. Joe seems like a genuine, person, there does not appear to be any obvious signs of lying or obfuscation. He does seem genuinely concerned about the child and is probably about as weirded out with the situation as everyone else is. God, well, I just appreciate you being here, Joe. It really, it warms my heart to know they put a veteran on this and somebody that clearly has a love for what they do.

You know, if you could just keep me abreast, if you know anything I don't, I know anything you don't, then between the two of us, we might be able to prevent the loss of another child's line. Tuck, eventually Ruhi is by you and she says, I'm going to make some tea. Would you like some tea, honey? Honey, would you like some tea? And she references Mia. Mia. Mia seems to nod her head. I don't even know if Mia truly understands what that is, but if you say yes, she'll say yes. Yeah. I'll just kind of like take her hand and pull her down a little bit. Are you okay? You doing okay? Yeah, yeah, I'm doing great.

Yeah. You don't have to be doing great. I'm right here with you. Well, we'll talk more when we're not. You know, here. The rest of you, are you all just standing in the room? Do you step outside? What are you guys doing?

I think Hyde would eventually step outside, since there's too many people in here. I'm trying to see what's going on with all these hikers or the overall situation of the weather outside. You step out into the larger area. People are rushing up the stairs. You might even follow them up the stairs. And up there, there's just a very big, large attic space that has blankets and chairs and couches.

It seems to be some kind of refuge area in case of emergencies and things like that. And some folks are kind of putting themselves together. Again, most of these look like hikers, backpackers, things of that nature. most of them drenched from the rain, most of them complaining. As you walk through them, you do notice the hubbub is producing some interesting conversations. There is one woman complaining about seeing a man rummaging through her stuff. When she went to a costume, he ran off into the woods. Another person was saying how freaked out they were.

They think they saw Sasquatch. There was a tall silhouette watching them from the tree line. There's a handful of stories from these folks as they tell each other and, you know, if you join in the conversation. Yeah, when some people start talking and stuff like that, I'll ask them, where were you guys at? What part of the trails were you guys walking through? Each one was coming from a different place. One of them was coming from the Oshanasi Dam. The other one was coming from the Devil's Chair monument that it was where Mia was found.

Some folks were traveling from the southeast and southwest. As you talk to them, you start to triangulate in your head that there were at least four sightings, each of them coming from the northwest, the northeast, the southwest, and the southeast. And they were all similar descriptions, some type of large, silhouetted, esch kind of being. Some of them describe a man as tall as 10 meters, 12 meters, often. they are silhouettes, often they are moving fast and disappearing, but there's some corroboration here. If that is everything that everybody's kind of mentioning and stuff like that, outside of that,

I'm probably going to slowly start making my way back to the group to talk about that. Um, Tuck, give me a search or a medicine role, please. Ooh, that's a success with a 26th. Haley, you've been holding Mia this whole time, and you can't help but kind of try to maybe get a wet towel and clean some of her neck and her shoulders. Yeah, I've definitely started trying to clean her up. As you clean her up, you start to notice there are these nearly invisible, seem-like scars that criss-cross her body in bizarre interlocking patterns, almost like there's something under

her skin. And eventually the cleaning goes to her neck, and you notice there's something on the back of her neck. There is a small green tattoo on the back of her neck. There are three squares and what appears to be a stylized feline head in the center of them. If you were to run your finger across it, it almost feels as if there is a raised point under the skin.

I'll catch Merritt's eye and I'll just kind of like shift her in my lap a little bit like I'm like I'm shifting her to clean a different part of her neck. and once he comes around the other side, I'll just kind of like rub my thumb over it as I go, not wanting her to know that I've noticed it or know that it's even there because I doubt she knows it's there,

but just so he sees it. Right. I'll take out my notebook and jot down a depiction of it at first. And then without touching, just sort of hover, because of course Merritt wouldn't have any sort of consent in that direction, but he's just trying to discern how raised it is from the skin, what sort of size it might be, a marble, a pebble, whatever it may be. The tattoo appears flat, again, as if a tiny little pebble is embedded under the skin.

And I just give a knowing look to Haley and say, we may need some privacy later tonight. At this point, it is blackout, pitch black. the rain is a cacophony of sound. At some point, when the rain is really picked up and it's getting darker outside, Tuck's going to leave Mia drawing with Max, and Tuck's going to go to the closest window and look out. I think it's been long enough that she's getting that anxiety about being back in Yosemite. Like the adrenaline of getting to Mia and seeing Mia is starting to wear off just a little bit,

And Tuck doesn't want to be back here. And I think she just gets a little antsy and starts just looking out the window, seeing how much longer it looks like the storm might be if there's any kind of like sun peeking through, any idea of when she won't have to be here. You look out the window, it is torrential downpour. After seeing the example from Boomer of the meteorological signs of where the storm is, You hope that it will blow over.

It's so small in comparison to the rest of the valley you would assume it would have moved by now. But it doesn't. It doesn't let up. It's heavy. The occasional strike of lightning. Make an alertness check for me. That's why I put more in this.

Let's see. That's a success with a 38. The lightning strikes and you're looking at the tree line and standing there in silhouette is an enormous figure. You are immediately cognizant of who this is, what this is, you've seen this before, you were a child. I need you to make a sanity check. Success with a 28.

This rush of adrenaline comes up inside of you, and for a moment it almost feels like the bathroom again, but it descends. Why? Why are you not freaked out by this? He's still outside. I'm inside. I'm inside with her. We're both safe inside. He's still outside. almost a childish confidence of like, I'm inside, he can't get me inside. It's light in here.

It's dark outside. It's light in here. He can't get me. The moment that lightning fades, the silhouette is gone. And you're confident that you are safe as long as you're inside here. As you are looking out the window witnessing this, Ruhi approaches Max and Mia with some tea. She hands you on Max.

Mia accepts the drink. And as she looks at it, those of you who are in, her, recognize this kind of glaze that kind of comes over her, and she goes, hot, hot, hot, and she begins to violently spasm. I'm going to grab the drink out of her. I'm going to quick, I'm going to gently grab that cup out of her hand. Make a dexterity check. 50, yes, under my 60, yes.

Excellent. You are able to bat away the drink before any of it touches her, but she begins to uncontrollably spasm. Ruhi steps back, like, oh my God, what have I done? She gets, she gets, tucks attention. All eyes are on this child who is now going through some kind of major convulsions. What are we doing? Seizure protocol, just like turning her on our side,

lifting her arm up, getting her just immediately to where she is and talking as softly and, like, gently as she can. It's okay, just breathe. You're okay. You're safe. What is everyone else doing? I'm going to start shooing people away. If there's anyone sort of looking into the space, I'm going to start pushing people back. Okay, I think Joe is pretty much the only one in here.

He's certainly concerned for the girl, but if you're telling him to back up, he will back up. So the intent is just the agents are in this room, correct? Yeah. Yeah. Tuck and Boomer, you are the first to see it, but the rest of you cannot help but notice. Out of every orifice on the little girl's face, some kind of white slime begins to emerge. From her ears, her nose, foaming at the mouth, at her eyes. this kind of white fluid, this opalescent fluid,

is emerging from her as she violently shapes. What do you do? I'm immediately going to go to my go bag and grab latex gloves and basically throw them at Boomer and at Haley. Hands, protocol, protocol. Watch your hands. I can't leave her like this.

Well, put the gloves on first. Watch your hands. Tuck puts them on and is just like holding her head trying to keep her still, probably shaking, not quite as bad, but also shaking, and just tears trying to stay calm. Ruhi is in the corner saying, oh my God, what did I do? What did I do? The white liquid begins to coalesce on the floor, and eventually it stops. But that's not the strange part.

The strange part is it coalesces and begins to move. Boomer, you can see it quickest before anyone else, with one little pseudopod at a time reaching out and starting to, form and grow and become larger. What is everyone doing? Can I grab a teacup and like cover it? It is like a pancake that is in the center beginning to bulge. It's bigger than a cup.

You can attempt to put it over the bulge if you like. I'm going to try, yeah. Put the teacup over the bulge, and a moment later, the teacup shoots off in the opposite direction, and the white goo begins to move away from you. Dole. Is there any direction that it's a bit? going for specifically windows or doors or anything like that?

It seems to be making a beeline around Tuck and Boomer almost kind of moving towards the wall. I would say that it's coming in your direction, Merritt. Okay. I'm going to close off the direction between it and the door and call for hide. Hide. Watch the window. Any corners. Make sure this thing can't move. We need to contain it somehow.

And I am going to make sure that door is shut. If it has a lock, I'm going to lock it immediately. And I am going to draw my sixth hour just in case. While we look around, is there any fire extinguishers or anything? I could, like, CO2 or anything like that? Make a luck roll. Oh, no, I got a 77. Doesn't appear to be anything in this room.

There is a fireplace. We're going to start with initiative here. This thing is rolling on the ground. It seems to be moving around the couch, heading towards the door, just as Merritt runs close to the door, hide with the highest initiative, what do you want to do? Can I try to, I guess, flank it? And then, I mean, if it's small enough where I can maybe, like,

throw my knife at it and see what that does. Go ahead and make a melee attack against it. Yeah, well, it's distracted, I want to come up, try to get right behind it, and then, like, foot my knife at it. That's a success with a six. Excellent. That's three points of VMA. You jump up onto the couch and you expertly throw this knife

at this thing. It goes right into it and cuts it like butter. And now there are two. That was stupid. One rolling towards the door and one rolling towards the fireplace. Do that 50 more time. This is not that. I'm like, try go and pick up, go and run and pick up my knife and go after the next, the one that darted off into a different direction.

Everybody, give me a sanity check. No. I feel like I'm immune to it. Oh, I failed with a 99, sir. I failed with a 55. I pass. 12. I'm good. I have a success with a 33.

Scary, scary boogers. Those of you who succeed, you only lose one sanity. Those of you who fail need to roll a D8. God damn it. No. A eight, surge? Please.

Wow. No, wait. Fuck me. Five. Three. I got a tip. You are always welcome to project it. Yes.

Yeah, you know what? Let's project it onto Micah. I'm projecting two. Yeah, I'm going to project it on my sister. Two. What happens if I break my bond with my dad right now? Huh. Wow.

So soon. Episode one. I think the bond is broken. Don't think you hit like a breaking point or anything. So, well, I mean, if you lose it, you lose it. I'm definitely going to project it. it onto our dad. Agent Tuck, roll a D-10.

Six. You may add the six to your dexterity score permanently. What? What? Don't look a gift horse in the mouth. What are you doing? Sh, taking. Where you were able to hold it back at the window,

seeing this completely alien organism, strike something inside you that you weren't ready for. And again, that burst of adrenaline that you felt in the bathroom, that burst of clans. clarity hits you and you suddenly feel this adrenaline, this overwhelming ability to kind of see everything happening in slow motion. For the foreseeable future, until I tell you, you have a 40% bonus to the following skills that are associated with dexterity. Dodge, firearms, stealth, and swim. Holy shit.

Okay, hope. Why is it so much worse when he gives us the positive bonus? because you know it's coming with a shoe that's going to fall somewhere. The shoe is going to drop, yeah. Very serious. You are the iron lung. So there is one organism moving towards the door blocked by Meredith. There is another organism making a beeline towards that fireplace,

which is not currently on, by the way. Warp, you are up next. What do you want to do? I'm going to take the pot that still has all of the hot tea water and yeat it at one of them. Whichever one's closest to me, I want to just douse it in the hot water. Agent Warp, not only did High train you well, but being around her makes you more confidence. So long as you are around Agent Hyde, you'll have plus 20% to your melee attacks on top of what you've already learned.

So with that said, please make a melee attack using that hot coffee against this thing. That's a fail, I think. Yeah, that's a fail with 79. So you throw the coffee at it, but it is rolling at a surprising pace, and the hot water just splashes the floor, and immediately a steam is rising from the floor, but it just misses the creature. Do you want to move, or are you staying where you're at? I'm going to keep moving towards it. Okay, you're basically like scuttling behind it, trying to get to it.

Are you heading to the one that's heading towards Merrick or towards the one that's heading towards the fireplace? Heading towards the fireplace. Boomer, you're on the ground. The girl is still convulsing, but there is no more liquid coming out of her face. that liquid is now moving around the room. What are you doing? I'm going to grab her pick her up, and I'm going to try to hold her as best I can.

Also, make sure she is breathing, because I don't want that thing to go back into her, and also make sure she's not choking on any kind of, like, foam or something. It does appear like the convulsions are beginning to subside now that this thing has left her, and by the time your round is over, she is no longer shaking violently. She's just sort of, like, curled up, unconsive.

conscious in your arms. I'm gonna just hold her and make sure that any time that thing comes near me with her, I'm gonna just... You're gonna kind of defend her and use your body as a shield. Oh, yeah. Merritt, you're at the door, you're able to draw your weapon. Okay, how far away is it from me and the door, would we say? Like six feet.

Okay, I call out and say, fire, we need to heat this thing. Merritt is going to see, now that he has his gloves on, to see if he can pick this thing up and launch it further into the room. Yeah, I'll try kicking it instead. Let's see how much I can get. I just want to keep it as contained as possible when it flies. Go ahead and make a unarmed combat attack against it, please.

Got it. I succeed with a 37 under 60. Like kicking a frog off of a log. You pump this thing, and it flies across the room, landing opposite of... where the second one is rolling, but now on the other side of the room away from the exit as you had planned.

You look down at your boot, and there's a little bit of a sizz coming off of the leather. As if maybe some acid or something has touched it. Watch your hands. I think it's acidic. You hear Joe DeWant banging on the door. Whoa, what's going on in there? Is everyone okay? But that is his turn as you are blocking the exit.

Tuck, what are you doing? You're watching all of this in a kind of half-speed. You feel like you can. move faster than everyone else in this moment. Is there a trash can? There is a trash can. Is it a metal trash can or a plastic trash can? Make a luck roll and if you succeed, it is the type of material you'd like.

I would assume plastic would be better. I was hoping for metal. Okay, maybe it's metal. 24. Yeah, it looks like they brought in one of the metal trash cans from outside. It currently has a bunch of sports supplies like baseball bats and hockey sticks in it and you just dump it out. They're not close to each other anymore, are they?

One of them is currently active near Merit, and the other has just been kicked into the fireplace. I'm going to try to put the lip of the trash can on the floor and scoot it along the floor. Try to pull an arc of, like, scooping one into another and then dropping the lip. Let's make the first role, which is your melee combat role against the first one,

and it will be pinned by this, uh, crash. 45. Fail. You begin bringing the can over to it, dragging it along the ground, and like an intelligent dog whirls around you and kind of does a little twirl around you and then continues proceeding. You miss it. However, you move exceedingly fast when you do it. Maybe almost so fast that you're not able to, you're not used to the sudden jump. Yeah. They're smart. It is now their turn. The first one that is in the corner is roll towards you, since you are at the close, and is going to suddenly leap out of the ground and at you tuck. Go ahead and make a dodge roll

if you would like to attempt to dodge. Yeah, I'll dodge. That's success with my plus 40, 86 under 95. You leap out of the way, almost in a preternatural sense, you're able to sense that something is coming up behind you and you just kind of duck and it leaps over your head. You all watch as this thing is rolling up behind Tuck. Tuck isn't even looking in its direction. It leaps up at her. You're all about to open your mouths to scream to warn her. And she just docks and it flies over her head.

The other half of it continue rolling towards the fireplace. It goes up the stone. Instead of rolling, you see these kinds of little pseudopods reach out and pull itself up. It is now just beginning to go up into the fireplace. place. Hi, we're back at the top with you. What are you doing? I'm going to take the stack of drawing papers and

I'm going to light it on fire and I'm just going to drop it on the thing. Whoa. Yes. Amazing. This thing is leaping over tuck and begins rolling towards your exit. You light it on fire and you just drop it on the ground. As soon as that fire hits the ground

this blob stops in front of the fire and you can see it's flesh kind of rippling and recoiling from the flames, and it is now beginning to head in the opposite direction. There is a secondary exit, not just across from the fireplace, that it is now heading towards a door that has been unguarded. I think this is an interesting place to bring our session to a close. What? You've been here. Fuck. Sergio. I think we've been going long enough. I think this is an

exciting place to stop. We'll pick up next session, and we'll go from there. Oh man. Fuck, dude. The Lord. Okay.