Mayday Plays - Orpheus Book 1, Ch. 10 - "Hell or High Water"

Episode Date: May 10, 2022

Orpheus Book 1, Ch. 10 - "Hell or High Water" by Mayday Roleplay

Good morning. Good afternoon and good day, folks. He's on fire. Allow me to welcome you to another episode of Orpheus. I'm Vince, your host and storyteller for this campaign. Joining me today, as always, are Aaron as Aber Abernathy. You can say hello if you want. You don't have to. Allegra as Logan Rio Mercado. Corn time. Amanda as Mio as Mia Castillo Bennett. Unfortunately, she cannot be joining us today, so we will miss you, Amanda. Caleb as Colette Sawyer. Good morning. We're doing a great job on intro so far. It's phenomenal. Eli as Nikoa Kahwane. Hey, good morning. Sergio as LaVenia Eileen Dyer. Yo, yo. And Zacchia as Vivian 515 Hager. He's on fire. On fire. Before we begin, as always, please keep in mind this actual play is intended for mature audiences. We've got elements of supernatural horror, violence, adult language, sexual situations, substance abuse, and a whole lot more. So viewer and listener discretion is advised. Music in this episode brought to you by Cryo Chamber and Epidemic Sound. Check them out online if you like what you hear. And others in that, you know, obligatory Patreon plug, right? If you like what we're doing here, please consider joining our Patreon, right? Throw some money these folks away just to keep this sweet, sweet content flowing.

So it's good for as little as $2. You join our Discord. You get to talk with all the awesome people there. It's a great time. Before we begin, does anybody have anything to announce? I know we've got the Delta Green Doom to repeat arc two finale coming out that tomorrow. Some point. Some point tomorrow, yes. Tomorrow. On May 1st, it's May Day. You get the news you are to. We should just mute our Discord notifications now. You probably should. You probably should. I'm sorry. Super looking forward to that.

What else? We got Orbital Blues coming next weekend, right Eli? Yes, yes, yes. We'll be continuing on with episode two of Orbital Blues. So you can check out the VOD if you want to get caught up with what the first crew or the second crew got into. Love that. Nothing good. I'm working on the return of Night's Black Agents. We're going to get that cook in here in the next month or so. Get back to that because that was a lot of fun. What else? Anybody else anything? We got a lot of irons in the fire. Yeah, a lot of irons in the fire, but. All right.

Yeah. Beautiful. All right. Well, hey, without further ado, let's get this party started, right? So Eli, I believe you are going to take us through today's recap. Awesome. All right. Here we go. These Violet Delights have violent ends, which as they kiss consume the sweetest honey. I've never felt more alive than these last few days to know how far gauze can be stretched before it tears to see fear in my enemy's eyes and know I did not have to reach further into the darkness of myself to find the strength to defeat them. And perhaps there is hope for this crucible. Shaw's manifestation after his death is a concern.

He wore a spite like armor, twisted his form till he was unrecognizable. I never felt pain. I couldn't soak. Perhaps this is a result of pigment and the corruption or a catalyst by the violent manner of his death, but Revis's presence in this event feels like more than a coincidence. Something is emboldening the darkness and we escalate future challenges and retaliation. This last mission has taken its toll on the crucible. This was a poor execution beyond the excuses of ghost phones. We keep finding mishaps where in philosophy or in action and for the longest time I've been wondering what it would take to find the cohesion. Perhaps I was wrong to see the unchecked emotions that ruled this group as a weakness. With the right direction it could be its greatest strength.

Our encounter with Revis and Shaw is a testament to that. Something worth pursuing if we ever get a chance to return to the field. I just hope they can understand my absence after inhale was necessary. Something is coming and I feel as if all of this, the fetches, Revis, Orpheus, white planes fall out of skies. Everything, everywhere, all the little strands on strands that twist and tether over the void mean nothing. Their arrival was planned, a fixed point to dine on meat and spirit. That's it. Nice.

Beautiful. Love that. Taking extra XP there. Hell yeah. In the aftermath of the events at Colette's Warehouse, police arrive, paramedics arrive, Logan is taken out in a stretcher still conscious but bleeding out. Stabilized but clearly in need of medical intervention. Catching an axe in the chest will certainly do that to a living, breathing human being. You are interviewed, you are questioned, Colette, your father is interviewed and questioned specifically with regards to the circumstances surrounding his kidnapping, his capture and his incarceration there in the warehouse itself.

You all are grilled on your acknowledgement or your relationship with Revis, why he was targeted specifically. Of course, the DEA agent that you spoke with, Agent Hall, is at the scene, very interested in why a person that you claimed to have had no interaction with decided to try to murder you. Oh shit. Oops. Yeah. But you are in absolutely no shape to sustain any prolonged questioning. You are very quickly rendered. What's a good word for it?

Maybe catatonic by the painkillers and the morphine and eventually the anesthesia to undergo surgery to save all those guts and entrails that got absolutely tore up by that axe. Yeah, no biggie. No biggie. And in the immediate aftermath, Colette, you're obviously your father comes to you. You know, he's not really the worst for wear. The ambulances need to take him away, bruised, battered, shaken, but alive, alive and not terribly injured. What was that about? I don't even know where to begin.

I don't know what to tell you to make you feel better about what happened, and I'm so sorry that it is my fault that it came to you in the first place, but I just been working on that project like you asked me to. And I know it doesn't look like I've been doing good, but I have been. And this was a symptom of something that I didn't know I was going to be a part of. Colette, is this, is this what you do now? Yeah, sometimes it's a part of me. He has. I think it's, it's a little too much at first, but she does an actually crumple in. I'm so sorry, dad.

I'm proud of you. When I heard they had you, I thought that the one person in my life that ever thought that I was good for something would be gone. And I know that what happened is, it's not ideal, but I'm glad you're still with me. And I hope you understand why I'm doing this even for a little. I, I can explain it if you need me to. You've been, you've been through enough for today, and I just want to sleep. But then a few days, can we, can we talk? Yeah, I'll answer the phone this time.

That'd be, that'd be nice. That'd be nice. We can meet, you're not staying here, are you? No, no. Every ounce of progress I made is now, well, it's on fire, so I think I need to find somewhere new to stay. If you need a room, you know we have one. That's okay, I like sleeping alone. Okay, well, we'll meet for coffee or something, and you can, you can tell me all about this. Yeah, yeah, that sounds good, Dan.

I love you. You stole my words, I love you too. I'm gonna go take some might be proof or something, I'm not feeling great. No, you're gonna get the good shit, we're gonna get you some Vicodin. Oh, I know a guy. I wouldn't say no. And you go your separate ways, but there's definitely, he's, you can't tell if it's guilt perhaps at pushing you so hard as he had, but seeing this new side of you and watching, his obviously, his mind has been stretched to its limits trying to comprehend everything that just went down in that warehouse.

You know, people in the shadows whose arms turn to the guns and blow off the heads of giant, voided out security guards, lot for an old man to handle. A very shaken up Mandy Patinkin trying to understand. A very shaken up Mandy Patinkin. Mandy Patinkin is the canon, is the canon father, yes. So good. Logan, you, you, I mean, obviously, the, the, once the adrenaline dies down, and you finally become cognizant of how badly you were injured. Consciousness is not with you for long.

You eventually, you know, fall, and then it's not long before the cops show up. And you were, when you do finally regain consciousness, you have no idea how much time has passed. But you are in the hospital and you are recovering. You haven't treated surgically, so we'll, we'll go ahead and we'll start talking about wound levels and levels of lethal damage as they are alleviated. But in the immediate aftermath of this, especially for those who are deceased, so Levinia and Eli and, and Viv, what, what do you do? Do you just bug out? Yeah. I'll leave you quickly as I came.

Yeah. And Abner, you were, you were asleep as well, weren't you? You managed to get to sleep. Yeah. Yep. So you, you bug out just as much. Mia, was Mia still, I can't remember if Mia was still in the flesh. Mia was a person because she and I were together.

Yeah. That's right. Yep. So she, she uses some of her connections and some of her abilities to help with the interrogation phase of the police response. But with that, you know, we'll, we can skip forward a few days as, as the heat dies down. Kate, of course, lets you all know that you are, you are on the beach until further notice after, after that particularly serious event and encounter that saw. We fucking live on that beach now, baby. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Took a home on that beach. Yeah. So you're, you're pretty much Kate, you know, makes, makes it clear that you're on call for the next few weeks, at least until the Thanksgiving, the Thanksgiving holiday, which is just around the corner. We're getting, we're getting close to, we're in early November and we'll be probably going up to the, the week of Thanksgiving. You know, on call, Kate kind of illustrates that there might be some desire to have you all come in and talk about your encounter with a, a no shit Jason and a spike corrupted PLE post life entity to new students and, and some old hats like because not everybody in Orpheus has, has survived an encounter with a Jason like you all have.

So you were kind of a commodity in some, in some respects right now. Yes. Can I milk the shit out of that? You absolutely can. You absolutely can. Of course. How would you like to milk that good sir? Please tell me.

I think I'm just like wandering the halls for a few days on end, just like any, anybody who isn't actively engaged in work. I'm sitting, I, I'm stopping at them and I'm feeding their fucking ear off. The war story guy. Got it. Okay. Yep. We even were that any, anyone at any kind of a higher position than me, I want to make sure that they hear about it as much as possible. Oh, absolutely.

You even double tap some folks. You get it twice. And there are definitely some eye rolls that, that break the sound barrier. But for the most part, there are people that are actually interested in hearing about this because it is, it is a very rare phenomenon that Orpheus has encountered. And so even just from a basic scientific standpoint and from a threat assessment and understanding standpoint, that's some good information for Orpheus to have. Because again, per Kate, the last crucible that went toe to toe with Jason was absolutely decimated. If not completely wiped out. So yeah, very good.

With that. Levinia, what do you, what do you do during at least the next couple of days immediately following the, the, the incident with Rivas? Yeah. Well, on the day of the incident, I think Levinia would have hung around the crime scene for as long as possible in, you know, trying to ensure that Colette and Logan and Mia are put somewhere safe. Abner, you know, put somewhere safe, although he's in ghost form. So I'm not as worried about him. Mia immediately head south to Colorado Springs to hang out with her majesty. So she, yeah, she hightails it for some weekends of, of wild debauchery.

Good. Wild debauchery. Quality time. Quality time. One might even say loyalty, perhaps. Is she loyal though? Is she even loyal though? Levinia surprised at how quickly everybody kind of dips because usually that's her job.

So she's, she honestly kind of like enjoys the fact that she's the one that's still kind of around to ensure the living are, are, you know, ushered where they need to go. Right. But, and the one surprisingly who sticks around is Colette, a man who you come to understand as Colette's father. You probably are there while they, while they kind of reconnect and talk. That's right. What do you expect? And I would be, I would be friendly to him, charming as I can. Not really, you know, engaging much other than just making sure he's okay.

The first thing I kind of would do coming back from, or at least at the start of our beach time is I remember somebody or a clue was given to us about the fact that pigment has a relationship with cults and religions in our world. I find that interesting and I wanted to see if there's anything I could dig into that. Maybe even start building a database of like religions and stuff that I know actively use it. Nice. Okay. Yeah. So that would have actually come from, I believe, so Logan and Colette, they were both interviewed by the DEA and I believe agent Hall. Yeah.

Specifically referenced that it was it to both of you or was it to Colette? It was the call. I think it was to me because he was offering me a job. That's right. That's right. So you're still on the table. Absolutely. Of course it is on the table.

Yeah. So yeah, there are, how would you like, what's the methodology that you're going to use to try to go ahead and collect this information? Okay, so we have this tip that pigment is sometimes used amongst the religious community. I would maybe start with like an internet search of the correlation between churches and pigment, pigment use, the discussion they're in and message boards. And then I would maybe try to go farther. I would maybe try to see if there are databases I'm familiar with legal or illegal to just kind of get more information. I don't know. I don't think Orpheus has much besides internal stuff.

I don't know how much research has already been done on pigment within Orpheus, but I certainly would be scouring their archives and stuff. Absolutely. Not exactly sure where to start beyond that. Okay, so let's get you to roll. Let's see here. Because you've got some, you've got some great, yeah, start collecting those dice because you've got some big old dice pools, don't you? Yeah. So we pull up here.

Let's do intelligence. Plus, you don't have anything investigation. Let's do enigmas. I'll give you enigmas. Cool. I appreciate that. Yeah. And then you said an intelligence.

That's three. Exactly how many dice I have. All right. And are we saying six is a success? Difficulty six. Yep. Okay. So that's one, two, three, four, five successes.

Beautiful. All right. He will, we will get back to you and what you find out because I'm going to start pulling down some information. That's fine. There's other things I'd like to do beyond that. Okay. Okay. Beautiful.

Yeah. Let's do it. I think once I learned that Logan is conscious in the hospital, I'd probably go and visit. I'd manifest and go and visit them. Awesome. And you mentioned it's kind of November. So I think I might sit by their bed until they eventually wake up and, you know, I'm probably admiring the window and it's, it's, it's fall.

You know, the leaves are changing and I might, you know, say hello to Logan by mentioning this is my favorite time of the year. Fall. What's that? Oh, there's Halloween, the best holiday ever. Agreed. It gets cool though. I can't really feel it anymore, but it's pretty.

I like times of change. Change can be good. Change is inevitable. Change is the only thing that doesn't change. How are you doing, Logan? I can't really feel anything right now. I'm sleepy. The drugs are working good.

Yep. They know when you're going to be out of here? Um, days. There's an amount of days. I might know them sometime. Well, once, once you're good enough, I mean, I'm always around. So I'm, I'm happy to come and help you in any way. Thank you, Vin.

We, um, those events of, of, well, what you, the reason you're in this hospital. That's been on my mind, but it's also been on my mind to our time in the club. When we first encountered Riva. So you remember that? My thought. Yeah, we were, um, we were guarding that stairwell. And we were doing everything we could to keep him from going up there and getting to collect. Yeah.

And I remember I heard you say something. You said, you said to him, haven't you ever been in love with someone and they don't know it? You remember that? I think Logan, that like cuts through all of the, the like medical haze that Logan's in. But I think they try really hard to make it seem like they're still in medical haze. Um, I said a lot of things. I said a lot of things. You definitely said that.

I remember it. Maybe. Do you have feelings for Colette? Oh my God. I feel like this is cheating because I can't lie good right now. Let's do this. Let's throw it up to the dice here. Go ahead and roll perception.

Empathy. Fucking Sergio. All right. And Logan roll manipulation. Oh, good. Plus manipulation. Nice. So I'm pretty even around here.

Let's do manipulation plus, plus empathy as well. Okay. We know how well I roll. Yeah, Sergio's got this down. We gotta make this good. One success. Beautiful. How many successes?

I rolled two twos. So it's zero successes on my part. Amazing. So I would say with just the one success, maybe you're willing to buy it for now, but there's still enough, there's still enough there to where you want to dig a little deeper. Maybe that's what leads the next question about if she,

if they have no kidding feelings for Colette. Yeah. LaVinia kind of realizes, oh, I'm talking to somebody who's like, you know, in a hospital bed about something very personal. Maybe that's not the most tactful thing to do. She's not as, she's not the most gracefully graceful when it comes to that. Cops don't even do that.

Right. I think LaVinia would just kind of, she's not going to force anything, but she's going to say something like, Logan, I think you've realized how, especially after this last event, how mortal you are, you should, you shouldn't hold back telling the people you care about

the way you feel about them. I think you should invite her out sometime. Logan is going to completely ignore the last part of that sentence and internalize it deeply and instead turn to LaVinia. LaVinia, do you have feelings for Colette?

I, I won't lie. We've grown close recently, yes. I know you guys have been talking so much. She deserves good friends. Could be a good friend to her. I am a good friend to her. That's why I'm talking to you.

I just, I know from experience, she's a very generous lover and I think that, I think that there's always room in her heart for more and you have to remember, Logan, I'm dead, so I'm never going to be able to fill. I'll probably die soon,

so she can have your ghost lover and that's great. That's all she needs. She doesn't need me dying, so that's good. You and her, you should keep that solid. That's a good thing. I realize maybe I should speak to you again

after you're off the painkillers, but... No, I feel like I'm thinking very clearly now. I'm going to die soon and that's cool. As long as I die keeping you guys safe, that's cool. But you guys should, that's probably better. That's probably much better.

When you're sober, think about what our discussion was. I'm going to keep you alive, just how you plan to keep everyone else alive, so there's no escaping it, Logan. Don't do that. I don't think that's worth the effort. Okay, well, go back to sleep.

I'll see you when you get back to the office. Okay, hey, Vin. Thanks for coming to visit me. I care about you. And I care about you. Good, you're a good ghost. Good ghosts. We are very good ghosts.

We killed Jason. He caught all up in my gut, so we still killed him. He fucked you up good, yeah. Yeah, that's okay. I'll kind of walk out, let her fall asleep again. There's a knock on the door,

shortly after you leave Lavinia, and Kate is there. Captain Mommy. Oh, painkillers. Captain Mommy. I'm going to put that on my resume if you don't mind. Yes, everyone should call you Captain Mommy. Beautiful. How are you doing, kid?

I'm emotionally terrible. I usually am, physically. Also terrible. That's a new one. You want to talk about it? No. Beautiful. She's got some really crappy grocery store flowers

in a mason jar that she kind of sets on the nightstand. I just picked these up on the way over. I think you're supposed to do this when somebody's in the hospital. I love flowers. There was one time, there was one time there was this fire.

There was this fire, and I jumped out of the plane like I usually didn't. I landed in this perfect little meadow, and all I could think of was, all these flowers are going to die. Did you stop the fire? Yeah, it only got to like a few of them. I made a big pit,

a big trench pit, and then just little sparks would go over. Then it didn't catch, because they were nice green flowers. Grass was green, and they were different colors. I think they were purple, and yellow. I think there was some more,

and they were like a sunset. It was a sunset meadow. I wasn't there at sunset. Logan's just like, worth association of their own. Kate just lets you kind of go, knowing that this is part of the process, and she kind of puts a hand on your shoulder,

and says, get some sleep, rest up. I got mommy. I just want you to know I'm proud of you all. We just killed a Jason. We just killed a Jason. Yeah, you fucking did.

Kate, you said people die to those. They did. Four of them. I'm so sorry that your people died to them, but my people didn't. I'm real proud of them. I love them so much. You gave me a team of people,

and I love them. Even my weird stinky uncle. That bean man. Kate, I want to learn how to do things better. I got you. We'll get you to where you want to be. Okay. Get some sleep.

Call if you need anything. When the numbers stop swimming. Okay. Kate takes her leave. I do have one other thing I wanted to do. Yes, and I will get back to you with your information. Yeah, that's fine. But go ahead.

So, Lavinia will return to Orpheus headquarters, and she wants to look at the interview footage. She assumes that all of our interviews regarding the night at the club were recorded in some way.

She wants to see them. She wants to watch them specifically. Okay. Okay. Can anybody just fucking get those recordings? They can't. I would assume not. And I will happily hack into Orpheus

systems. There we go. Let's do intelligence plus computer. Great. Great. I'm going to bump the difficulty up to eight. Okay. Here we go.

And I think you do have a pretty substantial dice pool, and they do have relatively decent corporate security. Post in the system. That one. I have three successes. That's enough.

Yeah. It is encrypted. It takes you a little bit longer to get access to it. But you do get access to Abner's interview footage. He watches footage. And I'm going to see that in the footage.

He does not lay blame. He does not shift blame. He just goes over the facts from his perspective. And up until this point, Lavinia has been very good about

pinpointing or trying to pinpoint that connection that she has with each member of the crucible to form some kind of empathic bond with them. And she's had a bit of a hard time with Abner. But she sees

in this footage the same tactics that she employed in her interview. She does not shift blame. She kept her mouth shut. And so she watches the footage. And the next time she knows that

Abner is in his office, she goes and she knocks on the door. And what? Abner, it's me, Lavinia. I'd like to speak to you. Oh, good morning. Would you like a can of breakfast?

I fortunately don't need a can of breakfast, but I appreciate that. What are you eating today? Beans. Any particular kind of beans or you just don't really look? I get the ones that are

on the bottom shelf because they're old and they're discounted. It's like 50 cents a can. It's really economical. You save a lot of money that way. Makes sense. Makes sense. What do you want?

I I've been thinking a lot about what happened with that Jason Rivas. And I can't get over how well how impressed I am, frankly, of our crucible's power.

We were warned about how this thing couldn't be stopped and it had that other ghost. What was the name of that other gentleman that died and became a pigment ghost? Shaw. There was Shaw there as well, but

we managed all of us to come together. To be honest, I was the most useless in the situation, but you were quite powerful. Would you agree? Would you also agree that

frankly our crucible has been having issues connecting and finding cohesion? No, you all seem really friendly. Well, you say you all like you're not part of the crucible. Well, when you're in charge, it's different, you know?

You can't be friends with your subordinates. I suppose it is one way to look at it. I've been going over these elements in our head, like numbers, you know, the things that make us

work and the things that don't make us work, and I don't know, I've been moving them around in my head like a chess piece and it's partly my thought that one of the reasons we might not be working is

well, I'd like you to consider stepping down as the leader of crucible 12. Is it April first? No, it's still, it's October. I know this must come as

somewhat of a shock to you, but I've thought about it and I just I just think a different leader would be taken more seriously and What do you think I am, kid? Why don't you tell me what you are? Do you think I'm that easy? I'm

I'm I don't think you're easy at all. No, I think you're quite intelligent and I was hoping you'd be able to see for yourself that I, while I think you should be a part of crucible 12, I'm not sure you're the perfect fit for a leader. What? Cause I don't go

hang out with, I don't go hang out at your slumber parties. That's part of it, yes. What? You think my, you think my brother's kid wants her weird, her weird uncle hanging out with her and her friends? I'm your fucking soccer coach, lady.

I appreciate your point of view and I understand where you're coming from, but I think you need to look at the fact that I, the team was quite discombobulated after that last event and instead of listening to us, you

kind of shifted the blame on us and I think that I think it, I don't know I've looked at folks like Nikoa and I've looked at folks like I even think Colette is has potential to be a good leader. You all still have jobs, right?

As far as I understand, yes. None of you have been fired. No. Then you know, as well as I do that what you just said is complete bullshit. I didn't rat out fucking

anybody. You're all still here because I decided to let you all still be here. So don't you come at me like this is somehow my fault because at the end of the day I'm here covering all your asses

making sure you still have jobs. I'm sorry you took offense to this, Abner. I was hoping you'd have a little bit more of an enlightened position but I understand why you might be a little obstinate. Whoa, what? You're surprised that your boss doesn't quit because one of his employees asked him to? That's weird

to you. One way or another I'm going to get my way. Either you're going to become a better leader and I hope you do or I'm going to gather enough evidence against you to get Kate to remove you. Evident.

Okay. Okay, kid. Okay. I look forward to our next mission, Abner. Get the fuck out of my office. I think she will dematerialize and walk out. And that's all I wanted to get done today.

That was fun. That was so good. Absolutely savage. You're fucking soccer coach lady. So in the course of your downtime, as you begin researching these pigment cults, there are a few names that

come up. There's the Children of the Angelic Coast, First Step, the Aphrodite Society, and the Temple of the Mother of Vision. The Temple of the Mother of Vision tends to be one of the more public facing and the essential idea is that these cults have all kind of sprung up.

They weren't pre-existing religious movements, but they seem to have sprung up around pigment, around the use of pigment. Are these like Christian derived? Are they just straight up cults? No, straight up cults. Straight up cults slash religious movements.

A lot of them are kind of like New Age mystical. In fact, this the Temple for the Mother of Vision is one of those. The New Age kind of modified Wiccan side of the religious vegan influence. Yes.

Could you go over the other ones again one more time? I can indeed. So you've got Children of the Angelic Coast. And I'll put these up in chat later. First Step and the Aphrodite Society.

Aphrodite Society. Now, Children of the Angelic Coast, I mean to me that's a little that is a more Christian delineated movement. First Step sounds like a recovery program almost.

Kind of does. The whole idea behind the name is that to become one with the beyond, the spiritual side, the first step is to open the mind up and pigment is viewed as

the necessary tool to make that happen. So is it like a Scientology thing where there are levels? Yep. Absolutely. Okay. I will probably and you don't have to give this to me now I'll probably start gathering names of like the public

figures of these organizations. You got it. Just yeah, the intention is to start building some kind of a database here with these weird religions. Beautiful. Love it. Yeah, I know what I'm doing with my next prep session. Yeah.

No, perfect. That's great. I'm glad we're going down this avenue here. This is good stuff. So yeah, the temple of the mother of vision is definitely one of the bigger ones. But I will get you information on this. And when we say big, are we talking

like a single large church's worth of people or is it a network? Yeah, I'd say maybe like a church's worth. Definitely at least when I say big, maybe the one with the biggest public presence. Outwardly facing socially. Like some of them

they do. Yeah, like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, all the good stuff. The others, they barely have GeoCities pages like this is very very low level. But this one it seems to have embraced technology to get the message out and bring people in.

In fact, you hear that kind of one of the big areas that they do a lot of their recruiting are actually college campuses. So they're going after a much younger HIPAA demographic. Okay, got you. Do they advertise pigments in their message? Because pigments like a modified

heroin, right? Pretty much, yeah. It still hasn't been it still hasn't been like the DEA is still setting it to quote unquote classify it as like a scheduled substance. Right. But they definitely make numerous mentions

to like a Eucharist. To a Eucharist. To, you know, various avenues to open up one's mind and third eye and all that stuff. So there's no like outward facing illusions to

illicit substances. But there's definitely if you read between the lines, especially somebody with your background. Yeah, they're getting high. Okay. I can't really think of anything else I want to ask you at the moment. Okay. Okay. Beautiful. All right. So let's

Eli Koa, what's Koa made up to? Well, definitely after the venta Colette's warehouse, Nikola had to shambles somewhere because Nikola was very, it was on three vitality. Oh, yeah.

No willpower left either, right? No willpower left. Yeah. So I probably would have gone back to Batu's to try to like spend some time healing. And yeah, I think the my time on beach time will be kind of spent straddling

time between being at Batu's estate as well as doing any general work at Orpheus. I imagine Kate or I need to debrief because I have yet to talk to anybody about the events that happened at inhale or

any of that. So I probably have to come in one day to do that. Yeah. In fact, to talk about that, so yeah, Kate definitely, once everything kind of dies down to a more suitable level, Kate definitely asks you to come in and is the one to do your

debrief. So she kind of sets you up in a little, little interview room. Um, how are you holding up? I'm fine. Healing, stitching myself back together. It's fine.

Yeah, the gauze is looking a little ragged at the end there. Yeah, I expend a lot of... Ain't gonna let yourself fall there. No? You know what I'm doing, so... Yeah, you do. You want to talk about it?

I mean, what is there to really talk about? I mean, if you want a debrief of what I, uh, what happened, if you want my findings about encountering Jason and Pigment, I can give you my thoughts.

Yeah, yeah, that's like that. We don't have to talk about what happened with Shaw and she looks up at the camera in the corner of the room kind of recording the interaction. So we don't have to talk about that here, but we can talk about what happened after.

Um, yeah, I mean... They're, um... Yeah, so I would probably just explain a bit about what we did, how like, we had to beat Rivas, like, the level of like, physical damage and uh, that

lack-icker. But I will ask, like, Shaw, like, what is that, like, Shaw turning into that thing, that creature, like, what is that? So we've seen that in a lot of cases where um, an individual's

spite has just run rampant um, to the point that where they can no longer hide its effects on their spiritual form. I mean, everybody has spite. Everybody has a spite

full-side. Everybody has a little bit of hate, a little bit of hangar in them, but that's the battle we fight sometimes. Some of us can tap it and use it to our advantage. It can kind of bring to the fight what Shaw did, but it's temporary. It's not permanent. Some people where it's gotten

out of control where they've surrendered to it completely, they wear it like they wear it like a second skin. Shaw was if I had to guess one step away from being a specter. That's the progression.

That's what happens. What I couldn't tell is if Rivas had any influence or control over him because that would be a very troublesome thing to know. We've seen some

specters that are able to wield influence over lesser forms. Something's up, Kate. This is unusual. This is an influx by massive amounts

of degrees. Yeah, things are picking up. Are other crucibles experiencing the same level of encounters with fetches and all of this because it's astronomical? We've had a couple

on salvation runs. But I mean, not like this. You've all kind of been at the I mean, honestly, at the forefront. I mean, you were the first one to run into fetches again for the first time in a while and now this. I don't know if it's coincidence. I don't know if it's

targeting. I don't know if it's things just reaching a fever pitch. There's not enough data. I will say business is a boom right now. That's not comforting.

No, I suppose not. Did you ever learn how to forebode? I did. Yeah, I did. I tend to I don't like to do it. Why? Have you seen something?

No, no, not recently. I haven't used it recently. I use it. I just use it sparingly because it's so honestly, it's it never shows what we want to see. What does that mean? What did it show you that made you believe that? Yeah.

When you were alive, you ever have lucid dreams? Sometimes. Once or twice, I don't know. Like fucked up dream logic. Like things that just don't make any sense. Always open for interpretation.

Sometimes I just wanted to know Persona, is that place be doing things? That's all I want to know. But with forebode, it's literally a roll of the dice. Hey, pun intended. Every time

you open up that third eye, you tap that part of yourself and I just I was much better and much quicker at finding people the conventional way versus using that. I don't like using forebode to find people I feel like that's just problematic.

But I have been seeing something would you be willing to look at it and see it too? I need somebody to see what I see because I'm the only one who sees it and nobody can understand it.

And it's frustrating because I'm looking at pieces to a puzzle that of something that's going to happen and it's going to happen very, very, very soon. Yeah. Have you asked Logan or have they not learned it yet?

I can't. Well, they're in the hospital, but I mean before this. No, I haven't. Logan hasn't shown any aptitude for it. Don't want to push something that she's not

they are not ready for. All right. Yeah. Yeah. Let me let me go. Let me flatline and all. I'll give it a shot. And she does. She kind of props up the chair in the corner and takes a moment

and just, you know, legs flat on the ground, feet flat on the ground, hands on her knees, just breathing very steadily in and out, very meditative. And you watch her body slacken as all of a sudden her gauze form

is standing right next to her. I want to give Kate one of my benefits. I believe it's the whale benefit that lowers the the rating for the dipole. Yes. Yeah. So she has a more likely of seeing it. Love that. OK.

So we will pull up her pool and we will make this happen. That is that's three successes. And if you want to roll as well, we'll say that you two are kind of combining your vitality at this point

and trying to share a vision of what's going on. Yeah. Go ahead and go ahead and make that roll. That's two successes. OK. So yeah. We'll treat that as five

and you join you touch gauze and you share that vitality that that electrical jolt that kind of pumps through both of your your spectral forms and you're both gone

and when you open your eyes or at least with vision some semblance of it returns you are home again in Hawaii and your family is gathered

outside around picnic tables food everywhere laughing music the smell of cooking meat the sky is dark it's looks like rain on the horizon

you can practically smell it at this point you can practically feel the static in the air as lightning nears in fact you can hear distant booms of thunder as it grows closer and eventually there's one peel of lightning and what you blank almost reflexively and Kate

recoils ever so slightly because she's here too like a shared dream and when it clears you see the bodies of your family just everywhere scattered all over the ground some are shot

some are cut some are bludgeoned some are burned and standing above it all closer this time much closer

one then two then three five six more than you've ever seen seven eight emerging from the shadows and behind them

fetches frighteners all the other varieties of specters some that you've never seen before some that look like Shaw marching behind them not necessarily in any sort of formation but more like a

just a gaggle just an absolute horde of just pure hatred and hunger and you see yourself and you see Viv dies blackened and you return

you see that every time every time it's a fixed point jesus fuck I can't see anything past it I've tried I mean have you talked to your family recently

have you do they even know you're still around I'm dead to them I haven't made contact with them since is there any concern that anything is going to go after them

I don't know about that I think it's more of a representation of something bigger whatever this is is going to take everybody it's going to open something bigger I don't know there's no catalyst there's no

there's nothing that triggers it it's just going to happen I've never seen anything like that those reapers we've run into them before they're specters just like everything else I've never seen one not like that yeah just keep

I wish I could tell you what to do this is I'll mention something to some of the other banshees on staff we'll see if we can we'll see if anybody else is experiencing anything similar I'll put a report in we'll pull our resources see if we can kind of

I don't know get some psychiatrists involved have them do their thing on it see if they can attribute any meaning to this thing but I don't even fucking know where to begin I she was like pale I believe I've been doing this a minute I've never seen anything like this

yeah I don't know either are you okay? yeah just keep me posted I'll let you know as soon as I hear anything okay with that I'm going to leave and I'm going to go find Viv okay alright

because that was not what I wanted to see um yeah she's probably on Orpheus's site I think she's like channeling all of her stress and rage into an unfortunate peloton in the training area

and just like like rattling it I think her like helter skelter is going so there are just parts of the peloton around but it's still going and she's in the zone love that you're getting better at that

I'm just like pulling a cigarette out I don't think riding a bike no that makes sense the ghost should I got you I don't think you're allowed to smoke in here just go smoke work I like

blow out smoke and it just goes and then refashions back into my gauze I think we'll be fine yeah do you want to take a break for like five seconds sure I'm great

I'm good I'm fine come with me yeah okay and she follows you out of the gym I'm going to take Viv to the top of the Orpheus building to the rooftop

okay you're muted Vince yeah that works you're easily able to get up there no problem it's a nice cloudy cold November beautiful view

just staring out for a minute just smoking a cigarette how have you been lately you've been okay I'm slowly doing check-ins with everybody so oh yeah I got all my vitality back

so I didn't take a lot of damage because I made my hand into a big gun so I'm okay honestly I'm fine if you're like the fourth person ask me if I'm okay and I'm starting to think

is there something there's a lot of things wrong but is there something new that's wrong involving you I just have an intuition for these kinds of things it's general check and it's normal

for people to be concerned about another person when traumatic events happen right but we're both dead let's do some roles I want to see some roles for this you have feelings regardless of your death what do we want

let's do manipulation plus empathy and Viv let's do perception plus either awareness or empathy whichever is higher I've got ghost feelings there's lots of that going around today ghost feelings

I have four successes four beautiful I have three successes and two ones so you buy it you buy whatever co is selling okay that's very managerial of you

I mean it's also just a normal thing to do we may be dead but we have feelings and emotions I'm a banshee for God's sake more importantly because of

some past events especially at the zoo have you seen it you've had to have seen it the fragment the one that looks just like you yeah I've seen it and you've talked to it

they do speak they do what they tell you can I ask that honestly they're pleasant despite everything we've heard about them they're honestly very encouraging

encouraging you to do what exactly doing a good job, proud of you high five, that kind of thing sometimes praise is not constructive and discern the difference between that I'm going to be honest with you

I cannot but I understand that that's a thing now I'm curious you've seen mine or you've seen yours because I've seen my own I can't see yours

I don't think maybe I can that would be interesting yeah so you this Shaw thing obviously was a little bit bigger than we thought I killed a man

if that does things in life and in death takes a lot to kill a soul I crushed his cisternum until he choked on his own blood yeah that'll do it

I don't know what to say I usually just try to find the good part of it it did look really badass but I also understand what you were talking about with trauma and probably not the place for compliments I'm handling that in my own way

my concern is you feeding into something that you shouldn't be feeding into that fragment is not a good thing it's not it's gonna lead you down to something far worse like being like Shaw

but I'm I'm not like Shaw are you? sure you didn't stalk people or murder people sure but Shaw was also very arrogant ambitious willing to do whatever

it takes to resolve his appetites and problems so that doesn't seem far off base at the current rate you are going unless you can get any other information about

that one night I asked you to see that hasn't moved forward at all and honestly what else are we supposed to be doing I know that we're employed here but is it not our job to figure out this unresolved

business? I'm doing my job my actual job it's nice to come here and kill stalkers now and again but I'm not meant to be here and I don't care what happens

while I'm here I did when I was alive and I care about the people I see now but I've got it under control I'm gonna do what it takes I have two things on my list and once those things are done I don't care what happens

so thank you for checking in on me but I'm fine okay I've brushed up against you once and know that you are a force of nature in your own right and there's no way I can

push a poltergeist or to do what I want to do so that's right just be careful I'll let you know when I turn evil how about that alright

I'm just gonna shuffle on out cause anything else you'd like to do with your time? I mean probably would be involved in doing some training with orpheus on new recruits and stuff like that cause I can't do field work

I can do internal work they actually bring you in to address different classes and training in fact you're all even brought in as a group to talk to some of the senior shot collars and orpheus about your encounter with the jason

and what that was like and what it required to stop them how they responded to certain attacks on its form all of it may almost besides it being a point of pride with some of you there's a certain point where it probably gets

a little much, I'm not talking about it so much but yeah but yeah they definitely have you talking to classes they definitely have you talking about how when in your encounter with specters how you brought your horrors to bear

to counter that threat how you used vitality sharing in the case with Kate and Nakoa to stay in the fight to keep your gauze together to maintain your form all of that and then after that then I would probably just be hanging

around at Batu's place and hanging out with her and just spending time rehealing and just getting back up to the far awesome I think that's a great place to take a break

for about 10 minutes and then when we return we'll get with Avner, Viv and Colette find out what's going on with them alright cool see you all in 10 minutes hey folks we are back and we'll just keep this party

train right on rolling so let's start with you know what's sort of Viv what do you do during your downtime so the first thing I want to do is

tap spike no speed runs get another scene let's go after I think knowing that Logan's in the hospital by this point they're still like bedridden right

yeah we'll say at least for a week and then you know they'll start Logan's hardy in good physical shape so it could probably recover pretty quickly all things considered

so maybe yeah maybe a week about halfway through your beach time they'll be able to get up and get moving okay then I will go to Lavinia especially if you're on the Orpheus site always

cool so to show up I gotta make a run you want to help me absolutely I've got nothing else to do okay great so everyone's joking about this ghost phone shit but it's seriously a problem for me so I'm going to so stupid

you're going to a vent a ghost phone no no no I'm going to go get my phone but it's it's in my old house and there's someone there someone you don't want to see

I don't want them to see me so I need a distraction and my favorite distraction is in the hospital so I need you to recover so alright yes I will be your second favorite distraction

great great I think Viv just won the title it was just hot I'm sorry it worked I'm thinking it until you said it back to them yeah that's

well I guess it is just my mind then okay great I don't want to know who this person is I already know how I'm going to approach it that's frightening no I need you to tell me I need you to tell me what you think well I was going to be my usual charming self

and just you know introduce myself as a new neighbor or something and you know kind of ask about the the area and what they like to do and do your thing what why is that weird you're giving me a face it's not weird it's just like you said everything you say has

like three other secret meetings underneath it Viv I'm not a bad person I just died that way okay I know you're not bad just sneaky don't try to seduce

my girlfriend okay oh okay I will try not to but I am a flirt so and I don't see and she grabs your shoulder just in an honest real way

do not try to seduce kiss manipulate whatever game of thrones shit you do don't do it

I will be my most boring I can possibly be thank you yes good okay and we go to the apartment okay you're muted

I'm muted nope I'm good no sorry I was there was something going on so okay so you go to the apartment and is this during the week yeah you go up to the apartment

it's muscle memory right getting there you know exactly where it is but yeah what's your approach do you just like walk through the door and what happens okay so you're gonna go in like a normal

person yep I'm gonna be a ghost until I'm not a ghost anymore I just need to find my phone first but I will be a ghost until I find it and then I haven't planned this far I honestly

didn't think you were gonna say yes but I'm either going to put it on an altar or just take it with me and if I take it with me I'm gonna give it to you oh okay so while you're in there just go to the bathroom just towards the end and

I will try to give you my phone in there alright so we'll do the swap in the bathroom but first I've got to get into the bathroom yes alright if I don't if I can't she doesn't let me into the bathroom you might need to chuck it out a window or something and I'll

catch it the best I can just like dangle it out a window so I can see it and drop it and I'll get it I'm saying I would be okay okay that's fine I think she's gonna see me sticking my phone

out of a window you won't be corporeal will you I suppose you have to if you have to yeah to hold my yeah let's just play it by ear that's the fun part I'll give you a sigh it'll be a subtle sigh

okay great I have a stain known as shifting identity I can make myself look different see the stain slowly shifts the spook's looks

identity around still silly putty reflection of how little they knew themselves because ghosts are essentially avatars with their personalities they can tweak facets of themselves with the stain the character can exchange one dot in charisma manipulation and appearance with another by manipulating

elements of the very being so if I understand this I can move one point from one of those into another am I wrong you can yeah but there's typically a downside to that so but I'm a hue and I'm allowed to for this scene not deal with that disadvantage

got it okay what was what was the name of this one again shifting identity shifting identity so disadvantage I kind of want to I kind of want to shift a point into what I think the social attribute is that would

get me to get into the bathroom possibly manipulation got it okay yeah go alright so I'm going to put an extra point in manipulation I'll have three instead of two charisma goes down by one with the intention that I'm going to eventually ask her

to go to the bathroom and that's why I want to do that but I'll let Viv go to the inside like you know I see her go inside the apartment and I'll wait a minute okay and then I'll go and knock on the door

when you go inside Viv there's no one there Zach you muted does that stick out to me is that weird no knowing knowing you know they do have a job but they also have a lot of other side hustles with

you know various protests social justice movements in Denver they are very very good at finding ways to keep themselves occupied okay start hearing a knock on the door okay great then after making sure that it's empty

she'll just open the door for Lavinia manifested yeah when you open the door Lavinia has actually changed herself to look like not uglier but like just like has a more obnoxious face like an annoying new neighbor I'm like oh

uh change of plans she's not here I'll just walk in yeah I'll walk in start opening the fridge and looking around the cabinets and stuff I'm helping you find your phone yeah okay in the refrigerator alright that was for me

yeah okay look for my phone I don't know where like she would put my stuff it's been like a year okay did you have your own room or your own office no I don't I don't think I would need an office and we probably shared

there's like a there's like one bedroom did they have did they have an altar set up to you yes got it when you when you find it or it's supposed to be it's been fucking destroyed

yeah what I need you to take a spite point god damn it and you immediately you immediately see yourself grinning wildly

using helter skelter to completely destroy this altar to you wait what do I see this no you see that the altar is destroyed but you know the source viv mm-hmm so she gets the vibe that evil

her just did that right and you take a spite point this isn't good who do you think did this did your girlfriend do this no no fucking

fucking shadow viv did it I heard about these people you have to deal with I don't have to examine you but this is obviously bad can we do it to them

do they have an altar no I think they're me I think they're this this would be their altar it is taking it is taking everything like I think viv is visibly shaking um like stuff starts like

like not floating not like full gene but yeah maybe we should find you a peloton or a bird scooter to take your wrap on this is worth more than one bike

okay I'm gonna kill her I'm gonna kill her it's simple I'm gonna kill her kill her only one way to find out right if you kill her does that kill you only one way to find out she's been in here she's been in here

while Ajax has been in here and she doesn't know what the fuck is going on fuck me fuck fuck shit and what do I do I like leave a note can I leave can I like summon her do I know that she can hear me

do you focus uh yes you can sense that it is in Denver and in fact you can probably just following your instinct zero in where it's at

let's go good yeah what's your starting what's your starting vitality starting vitality is six yep within the same city general direction so you get a vague notion that they're north okay yeah

yeah let's go hunting really quick sorry you had to waste your uh cover girl oh it doesn't matter uh maybe it'll come in handy I don't know I'm here for it though oh

this is off the record I feel like I should say you seem like an off the record person yeah yeah everything's off the record with us don't say I never do anything for you though roll let's roll wits

plus awareness alright I have an ability as a skin writer where um I think it might be only when they are using their horrors but I can give them

a point so I guess if they're not using a horrors I should say right yeah just following following that sensation that instinct to try to ooh two tens and a five two successes beautiful

you go north are you going in a car are you walking what's your travel methodology here just sprint got it beautiful real quick vid are you curious at all what did you say your

girlfriend's name was Ajax are you curious at all what Ajax is up to are you going to monitor her for 24 hours if you needed me to alright alright we go sprinting we go sprinting

um yeah I have a logistical question that has nothing to do with anything but I'm curious can you just sprint infinitely as a ghost yep I was going to run around the world incredible

there is a limit right so like it's still you're still kind of constrained it's why like ghosts can't fly you're still kind of constrained by your physicality or like your perception of your physicality while you're alive so it's like you can run at an infinite speed like the flash

you're still kind of constrained by that but but yeah you can do a book you say bolt is the fastest ghost alive is what you're saying totally understand write that down as you you ever hold two opposite ends

of a magnet together and they kind of push against one another and you kind of you feel that right that's kind of the sensation as you pursue your doppelganger but that sensation begins growing more and more as you realize they're moving

further and further away from you much more rapidly than you're closing the distance until finally you lose that sensation oh you don't feel them anymore just fucking gone I wonder if they could tell that you were going after them

they obviously know where you are or you know where they are probably but why would they it doesn't make sense that they would even well they wouldn't run unless someone was chasing them well exactly you were clearly chasing them but where do they run to

I only have I have and I have that garage I don't go anywhere else other than Logan's apartment now but that's it what's north of us and you know I try to piece together what would be the likeliest place that someone

would run to from Denver yeah do I know if they're just are they just running away or are they going somewhere specific yeah so you can't tell intent you just can tell direction and location okay I mean there's just Wyoming and Nebraska to the north

there's nothing there there's nothing in there okay alright well that did the opposite of what I needed it to do maybe you need to do something to draw them back maybe uh I don't know do something that would attract them have you do you know

what it is that attracts them tap tap tap tap tap tap what tap tap tap tap tap uh yeah I will anytime we spend a lot of vitality

and usually not in the good way after the zoo they showed up but we're wrong break I don't want to just I mean I guess we could find something and I could just try and absorb it I don't want to just absorb

something random yeah if you want to defeat this person I think you need to better understand them you should take your time obviously they've they've made a move and

the next time they show up you should act without thinking reaction something you've been waiting to chop their head off or something I don't know you know thank you for saying that

everyone's been telling me the opposite and I really appreciate that thank you we ghosts we were limited only by our imagination I the more I realize it the more we can accomplish certainly more than when we were alive

I agree I didn't really see that until my hand was a wrench around a ghost's neck but I agree that was pretty bad as well good well how about we walk back to

headquarters fine feel free to destroy anything you want along the way okay I just I just kick the shit out of some trash cans love it yeah

do you do your get together with Ben yeah we're going to the park yeah Majestic View Park in Denver we're close to it I think it's kind of right on that comes between Arvada and Denver but yeah at some point you set up a date and time and

he'll be waiting for you and we'll say it's after you discovered your alter had been see please don't make this the same day no no no okay good alright they won

well you had some questions that's the impression I got I had questions for you yeah you wanted more know more about kind of what was going on the inner workings what this meant for you yeah

sorry I'm I've been distracted I wonder when you guys had that fucking thing with the Jason so I mean right the Jason I wasn't even thinking about that so did you really turn your hand into a fucking gun

and blow off the bodyguard's head after I turned it into a wrench oh shit that's right that's fucking badass Swiss Army arm Swiss arm Swiss arm that's

did you uh you tapping any of that darker stuff in that no technically no because you can't I tried I tried and I couldn't okay I don't know alright

probably for the better is it though yeah yeah yeah has there been anyone that's um right that's sort of kept their head

or not without bringing it back down it's a struggle right it's a balance that's you gotta keep things in check you know we've we've lost folks who've went too far in the other direction

yeah but if there was something strong enough to keep them they could stay yeah they gotta make an effort but that's the problem right after a certain point they're so far gone they don't want to go back so now would be

a good time then what do you mean um just to make an effort just in case yeah I mean listen yeah

we've all seen the movies right there's like temptation in the dark side it's all the bad stuff there's always that that call to power and and I mean the fucked up thing is they're not wrong it's like they've been prepping us to die our entire lives uh or at least have this this ability but um

it's there's truth in it and when people that you work very closely with start walking around looking like monsters it really drives it home because after a certain point you can't hide that anymore like what y'all looked like

from what we've heard that's how some crucible folks start looking and there's no way to hide that or turn it off not without making an effort to go back have you ever are you doing that or

trying not to do that I don't know how to ask the question trying not to and failing miserably okay same there are fights out there that whether it's because Orpheus straight up doesn't know or they don't want us to know

that maybe we're not the best equipped to fight and you need every fucking advantage you can get and I'm not losing I'm not losing people on my team that okay that's how I feel and I understand the people on the team don't want that right but somebody has

to jump on the grenade right somebody has to yeah otherwise people just start dying and adjacent like adjacent we can't we can't just hope through things like that that was our

second mission right second mission the problem is the problem is when you jump on a grenade right and you're like that's it you're done what happens when you become the grenade that's fair

I hate that that's fair okay just you're smart you know what you're doing you know what your limits are but listen when people say you're going too far because after a certain point you're not going to hear yourself

anymore we can do that to be fair I think I can do anything which is the problem yeah you can okay I'm trying to figure this out when I was alive there was

a very clear point where things would stop you just couldn't physically breathe your legs would stop moving and you couldn't pedal anymore and that's gone so as you're talking there is a shutter that

that kind of just reverberates through the park what you feel it more than see it you hear some car alarms go off but like the trees don't move the trash cans don't move it's weird you feel it

it's almost like when you were alive and somebody turned the bass all the way up and you can feel it just kind of pumping out of the speaker it's kind of like that and Ben sees you kind of pause just like that he's like what's up

I don't know did you feel that no I feel what I hope it's that stupid wait what won't time out what was it it's like a like a wave

oh the ghost quakes that's what we call them it's like cash ghost quakes they're like fucking earthquakes that only either projected us or folks like you can feel

what they're like psychic earthquakes what what does that mean if they're just only us no no no I'm sorry spirits in general

but you didn't feel it just now no because I'm in my meat suit oh so what the fuck is that what does that mean Orpheus doesn't know or at least they say they don't know they're just this thing

where it's like earthquakes they just pop up every now and again sometimes they spit shit out from from where like hell nobody knows this is a lot of not knowing

this is a lot of not knowing yeah ghost quakes I don't even remember what I was talking about the ghost of the earth shook so so we don't know what those are or what causes them

you're how long have you been with Orpheus now I don't know like three months right yeah listen you're gonna learn real quick if you haven't already started to figure it out that Orpheus likes to act like it knows a lot they don't know shit

and they are still figuring this out and going into shit half cocked gets fucking people killed and it is going to blow up in Orpheus's face one day okay so

this is there anyone that we can talk to that's trying to figure it out they send teams out they send crucibles out to look into this from time to time like in fact they're probably gonna send a team out soon to talk to talk to people talk to ghosts in the area

see if they what they felt kind of map it that's their typical MO right like we get reports that one of these things kicked in they send out a crucible they try to map where it happened how far far out it went see if anything came out if something came out bring it back to Orpheus

earthquake hunting crucible it's a fun job yeah okay thank you this is not what I want this is not what I expected this to be yeah just

promise me something if you find yourself getting too close to that edge just either talk to somebody in your crucible or call me like I get what you're talking about because I've been there I am there

and I feel like sometimes two people talking about being the grenade can walk us back from that edge I can do that alright yeah

I get a shark's mouth for Christ's sake I I got a big old I one time my face turned into a shark mouth and I my Torah ghost set off sick why are you saying that

in a shameful way because I could end up looking like that forever still like your mom used to say when you make faces they stick that way you know I know that this is all life and death and dangerous and

but that is the dopest shit and I hope I get to see it in a safe place right but that's a problem to bring this shit out it's never safe the only ones who can use it are those fuckers who OD on pigment they can just bring this shit up willy-nilly

yeah that that tracks for them I know one of those thanks for me and with me yeah let's let's do this again without the ghost quake yeah yeah let's cool see you kid

thanks Benny anytime oh I have a nickname 515 thank you you got it anything else you would like to do with your

downtime kill my doppelganger kill my doppelganger would be good got it we'll get to that okay beautiful well thank you that was good uh Abner collect you want a knife fight over who goes next

uh do you want it bean boy you can have it bean boy I'll race you for it what are we rolling Benny B roll a D100 whoever gets higher and we'll get back to you Logan since you're I feel so bad I'm sorry

please don't I'm having the best time watching these fuckers well I rolled a 5 47 what's up oh man I don't okay do you not want to go first you don't have to go first no I do I'm just trying to remember all the things I wanted to do

okay yeah so let's um we can open up with uh you and your dad and then go from there yes let's do that I have one thing I want to do before then so I can give Sergio a time and um I'm gonna call LaVenia or find LaVenia we must have some

way to communicate with each other we see each other pretty often right yeah um maybe I'll leave a comment on the forum I did last time okay yeah maybe that's how I leave a that's a good idea okay um and I'll just

meet up with them probably not at Orpheus headquarters somewhere like a park or something no no I'll just give them a call if they can get to a phone actually I'll assume I probably have access to a phone at Orpheus headquarters yeah totally so once you have whatever in turn is on the other side

um hey uh Vin I've got something for you are you free this week I think I could make time for you yeah Colette okay so uh there's this painter and he's lost all ambition he has no reason to paint

he takes commission after commission just to make ends meet you know pay the bills at the end of the month but landscapes portraits abstracts none of it brings him any passion it just doesn't have it sounds miserable well it's a living it's a living and without any ambition

he continues on but one day there's a knock at the door right and on the other side is death and he's very very challenged by this apathy and he gives the painter on the other side an offer

he takes every ounce of ability that the painter has he puts it into a canvas and he says you either paint what gives you passion or you come with me and we take everything away

five years later the man is rich he's in love he's living lavishly he is painting like he never has before um what does he paint to stop death and then she hangs up and big smile over Levinia's

face and uh I think she's gonna think about it and she's probably going to find Colette the next chance she can get to answer the question yeah you all flirt weird

my my riddles three should we do the dad first or do you need more time Sergio I don't know how that works I think Levinia's guess is going to be so if I understand it correctly death offers

you're gonna die unless you paint what you're passionate about yeah I'll send it to you right now sure and then many years later he comes to her yeah maybe talk to your dad for a second let me think about this okay I'll talk to my dad dad um but yeah

I think I call my dad days after once he's recovered and we meet at like a Starbucks or something perfect yeah he's wearing his like typical Mandy tankin outfit you know uh button down checkered shirt and some khakis some nice khakis you know just

looking like a looking like a solid dad he's already ordered a coffee for you um I don't know what I don't know typically what you like but I got I just got you like a it's okay dad you did great

I don't drink coffee but I appreciate the sentiment oh fuck I'm sorry it's okay it's okay we're just it's fine um hey hold on why are you asking me that how are you uh

you remember you remember you remember Dr. Goldman uh from you know few years back I I went and talked I've been going to talk to him you know um you know just sitting you know

nightmares about what happened yeah yeah and I don't sleep very well and and how's um how's mom handling it are you too

you know your mother she you know acted like nothing happened no no she's just she self medecates right I think that runs in the family yeah let's just say we're keeping the cabernet

industry and in business right well I mean I know that you wanted to have this conversation and I don't want to feel rude because I did win the worst daughter of the year award

when I got you kidnapped by two uh cartel ghosts but um what can I answer for you like how can I get out of this situation as fast as I possibly can that's that's fair I um well

engineers thought that my daughter would say I was kidnapped by cartel ghosts what do you mean by that oh god um fuck well

well first let me ask you this collect because I don't know if I'm if I had a stroke from getting hit in the head or what but I could have sworn I saw somebody's hand turn into a wrench or a gun

or both both yeah that's viv that's a person and that happened that's a thing that happened is what you're saying yeah yeah she's really cool um anger issues obviously you saw the gun

um but she's a good person um they're all good people and um I mean the second that I called them and told them what was happening I think they were all racing to see who could get their first and that meant the world to me they're just people I work with

I don't know how to properly explain but everything they said about orpheus is true everything orpheus sells is true and um I mean people used to treat it like a practical joke like it was nothing like

like you know it was a ghost story that they were selling on the channel but it's true they found the afterlife and people are acting like it's nothing just like we do with every other major thing that happens in this world um and you saw it

viv wrench person is dead um vin who saved you with paint dinner is dead um beautiful hawaiian woman

who was uh fading away she's dead and my other friends we can die but for short little bursts and then we come back um and if this was any other year of my life I swear that you would tell me

that I was on drugs again but it's true you saw it too and either we both have a problem or that's the situation we're living in but um is it always like that no sometimes you're uh

you're at the zoo and you're talking to animals and other times you're telling a woman she's never going to see her fiance again and knowing for a fact that you could make it happen but you shouldn't um

there is all manner of death and every flavor um but it's just like life as far as I can tell holy shit colette I know I know how it sounds and

this is why I couldn't tell you from the beginning because it would just sound like every other time and no I don't think even in your wildest dreams you can make something like that up that's how I feel about my art now too um so

yeah you're okay that's you die but you come back yeah I'm not telling your mother that don't tell her anything she already doesn't talk to me I don't need to give her another reason and she barely talks to me anymore

well I would keep yourself tight lipped about this or she really won't yeah it's it's half the problem with this business is everyone is so used to denying

anything that is tough to understand that they'll deny anything this kind of breaks everything wide open doesn't it it's like looking up in the sky and seeing a fucking UFO just flying there

yeah challenges your perception of everything whole um how did you accept it I did what I always did and I tried to understand it the best way I could I tried to draw it

try to make it try to see it real on paper and I haven't really done it yet so my my latest piece sucks to shit because I don't know how yet don't force it

don't listen the contracts whatever paint for you Colette paint for you and if that never sees the light of day if it never sees another fucking gallery if it never sees

if you paint it and burn it great paint for you I'm trying I want to make something that means something to everyone but means the most

to me and every day gets a little harder but I understand a little more promise me something yeah take everyone out of that equation it's hard

it is hard there are some new people in my life that would give you a run pops you would hate them do they make sure my little girl gets home safe in a manner of speaking that's all I care about thank you

I'm sorry I know I haven't been the best father I've you know I'm gonna do better you're doing fine you're doing fine can we do this again oh

I don't know pops yeah yeah we can do it again sure just alright once a month once a month we get down we just get together and we talk yeah we can do that guess so I know you're still

not permanently turning your hands into wrenches do you do that I'm not one of them not one of them there's different types yeah I'm more of like a a light

a big flashlight a big torch you always burned hot thanks dad tombstone worthy thank you all right I know you've got places to go and you know

ghosts to see ghosts to kill but I love you I'm proud of you and I'm glad you're safe right back at ya champ can I hug ya

of course yeah hug ya and uh yeah Colette and dad go their separate ways where's Colette staying in the meantime while they're at home so in my mind she's been sleeping at the hospital

because she feels just wracked with guilt over what happened to Logan so she hasn't left the waiting room and she Orpheus like their employee assistance program has hooked you up with like a hotel room yeah for the time being and I don't think she has made

any major moves to stay anywhere new or to pick where it's going to be she likes that she's kind of stuck in the hospital in the hotel at least for now I'm gonna throw a wrench in there we'll say one day Logan you wake up and there's

there's Colette hey you're alive you have no axe in your chest anymore hey I've been alive for a while well I'm not going what are you doing here I've been staying here I'm trying to make sure

that you're not dead because too many of my friends are ghosts where it would uneven the ratio and I'm not prepared for the ratio to change I mean more technically ghosts already I don't like those technicalities I'm a very fatalistic person haven't you met me

well yes obviously you know you you don't have to stay here I can give you the extra key to my place and you can just crash there there's no one there no I'm fine where I am I feel terrible that you would do this for nothing other

than to save an old white man he's your dad shut up he's great he is but I didn't need this not from you I appreciate what you did and I'm not discounting it I love that you chopped out a hat to do that

I love that everyone did I can't believe that people would care so much about me to do that for him yeah dummy I we care about you I get that I'm just thankful you did it

never do it again I will kill you I make no promises about any of that I see how are you feeling floaty stupid the usual isn't it a great feeling

this is why I keep telling people addiction is a hell of a thing I don't like it I like having control of things and I have been not in control too much too much lately

yeah you're done losing control I don't think that's I want to be done losing control but I don't think that's going to happen I don't think so either I think we're kind of made for this I think there are certain types of people in this world

like orpheus things that are just built for this shit and I think unfortunately you and I were made in love with disaster yep that about sums it up

I'm sure they can get like another bed or something that's fine I like I like the chair and go somewhere better this is ridiculous I'm not going anywhere

you could have but okay I'll leave you I mean I'm not saying I want you to leave I don't want you you're gonna get exactly what you want no that's not what I want no I don't want you to leave I want you to say well then say that

I'm just saying I don't know what I'm saying I'm gonna say something stupid if I keep saying things maybe we leave it at that then I'm gonna go over fluff the pillows and everything

and then give her a big hug give them a big hug and leave when Colette leaves Logan shifts over on the bed as far as they can so that there's a tiny amount of space in case she comes back and doesn't want to sleep in the chair I love that

adorable what happens next there Caleb I don't want a scene for this but Colette does call her sponsor so that happens forget I think she just waits to see if Sergio

can solve the ultimate riddle I think eventually maybe you go maybe you go just because the Orpheus tells you to or not but maybe you head over to that hotel that they've set up for you and there is

at the door there's like a really corny like welcome mat like the tag is still on it it's brand new it's something colorful obnoxious and when you walk in LaVinia is in there in the hotel room and

she says I decided to get you your first piece to your eventual new home what do you think of that welcome mat I think that it is the tackiest thing I've ever seen and I'm absolutely in love with it thank you

I thought you might like it you have a real eye for these things you should have been an artist yourself I just found the ugliest thing I could find a target at least you're honest so did you solve it what's up you're supposed to be

the girl for this this is a particularly good one isn't it I'm just going to give an answer because I think it's the right answer which is that we have to learn to be inspired by the things around us

and the experiences we have I don't think he changes what he paints at all he continues to paint portraits and landscapes but finds pleasure in it what's the answer well you're right

he doesn't change anything death comes to him and asks him to paint what he's most passionate about and he paints nothing because he doesn't really care to paint anything in particular and death lets him live you got it

it was a good one though Colette I appreciate that thanks you want to know how I found it I almost was going to say you made it up but how did you find it nope I googled riddles with answer that end in painting

and that one came up so I went with it I remember doing that when I was three years old wow call me three and a half the video is like actively smiling in a way that is not common

so usually with these riddles things you get like a prize right if prize is pride I got something better than pride really?

yeah it's welcoming I'm really stressed out and I would love another night like ours and we lost our painting so I think we need to recreate but in addition to that

I've been thinking a lot about something that has been driving me a little nuts especially this week and I want to see if you'd be open to trying it what is it? I'm going to be honest

I don't really feel like being me right now and I think that there are a lot of things that people like me would like to do that would solve that issue right now in terms of things I've done in the past

I'm being intentionally vague I know I'm thinking well not being vague at all to be honest thanks if I leave my body could you have it for a day

why would you want me to do that? I wouldn't feel what that feels like and you would feel everything that you've wanted to do this is coming from a healthy place a place of

what if that sounds healthy if I'm in that body for much longer I will be less healthy so yeah why don't we do this why don't you leave your body and you come with me

and we'll just get into trouble for a week well we don't have to worry about eating or sleeping or any of the things you normally have to worry about we can just be the two of us getting into whatever trouble we want and let's be honest

we're ghosts there's no consequences okay yeah you don't need me to be you you don't need someone else to be you I just I get that you want to be out of you I just if I was being honest

I thought that you and I were sort of transactional I thought if I put that on the table I'd need to have to offer something but it's it's nice that's not the case I didn't well I

I want you to know that I've been struggling myself with the concept of who I am and what I am and am not capable of and I've been trying to make choices that I think are different

than the choices I would have made when I was alive that prove that I'm not static that I'm someone that can change and it's because I know you that I think I've been making these changes

I suppose you've inspired me that is the corniest shit in the world I love it I suppose so yeah yeah let's take a week then let's take a week and I will you know wait for her to

ghost and then show her all my favorite things of like fucking with citizens at coffee shops and you know just doing weird shit around town and being as distracting as I possibly can beautiful

yeah you'll need to spend vitality to kind of maintain that connection with your body Colette you go back and recharge you get a pretty good system going down to kind of stay out as perpetually as possible yeah

that's good all right I will do one very short very short last thing anything for you I am going to call Hall was his last name I'm going to give Hall a call okay Agent Hall

yes this is Agent Colette the Sawyer yes I'm calling on behalf of the Sawyer administration I want to take your job offer I just wanted to give you a call

if you could send whatever it is I have to do like through the mail or written because if I listen to you say any of it promise you I won't hear a fucking word of it but however you want to get in contact with me thank you Mr. Hall

see you soon yeah bye bye kisses and I'll hang up that's all as soon as you hang up there's another the phone rings again what not how that works but we can talk about it

okay let's take a week to think about it let's meet next week we'll go over the details all right okay sounds good see you then see ya right Abinor

fucking Abinath hello what is your plan my friend so the first thing I would like to do is I would like to go into the hospital gift shop and find like

the stupidest stuffed elephant or something that I can find it's easy easy enough absolutely I'm going to go up to Logan's room and I'm just going to be like hey kiddo

I'm just going to kind of awkwardly set the elephant down on their chest how are you feeling take a look at banner Michael I've been asked this question so many times I'm good

I'm totally fine thank you for this elephant did you have to get like stitches or anything they haven't really showed me yet it's mostly been covered up after surgery does it hurt

well not great but I've had worse probably could you you know if you're sick of like the pain relievers and stuff here's a little tip a little trick you might try just leave your body behind

for a little bit I think that would freak the hospital staff out more than I have the energy to deal with they'll just make you're sleeping I don't think I want to risk that here because

I'm already going stir crazy trapped here and if they trap me here because they think I had a stroke or a seizure or something like that and have to do extra neurological tests on me I'm going to lose my fucking mind okay I just kind of wanted

to see what would happen but if you don't want to do it that's okay too check the hallway hold on check the hallway I'll go check the hallway you're muted you're muted Vince my apologies

there is a nurse at a nurse's station other than that it's the hallways are pretty quiet right now yeah so there's nobody in the hallway so I think you're clear yeah alright let's test it I'm gonna skim out

yeah you skim out you're outside of your body floating around and the there's definitely a change in your heart rate it's still there but it is very very low and very very infrequent

like it's not just like a southern beep it doesn't just sudden beep no thankfully it's still there it's as much slower to the point where the nurse comes in and sees you you're in your skin right there

yeah hello I just need to check the connections I'm not sure this is working right nope are they okay they're fine are you sure look at them

they're looking a little pale don't you think you fucking asshole shut up what happened to you oh my god oh my god the nurse I'm gonna use whale to try and calm her down there's the whale that makes people calm

right roll um oh fuck this escalated quickly roll manipulation plus empathy please unsurprisingly one success listen I'll take it the nurse is like okay um something's up with her

pulse I'm gonna go get the doctor I'll be right back yeah go get the doctor yeah hurry up come on I manifest I manifest long enough to punch him in the throat okay then I go back into my body okay

what the fuck dude they're gonna keep me here longer you god oh you're fine is the rest of the team okay have you seen them no I have I've only talked to one person who

are they okay is she everybody's fine you know sometimes people like to just come by my office and tell me how they're feeling well you're the boss and you're in charge of us so that makes sense

yeah hey you've been uh you getting along with everybody okay yeah I think so how's everybody feeling nobody wants to talk to me you just said someone stopped by your office to tell you how they were feeling yeah

but not like that I can't speak for anyone else's feelings I'm not feeling them you're all like getting along yeah okay you're all like doing the

the things that kids your age do everybody's behaving in a healthy manner I genuinely and I don't think this is the drugs I genuinely don't know

what you're talking about but you're all like friends you know I guess I well good what are you asking me for friends listen I'm old

I don't know if you've noticed but I'm a little I'm a little up there in age you're like two years older than dad you're not that old but that's really old compared to you I'm 26 not 17 I know that people

age my point is is I'm not exactly on the same social plain as everybody else and sometimes you know I just you want everybody in the group to be happy you know and I don't have a reference

for that with you people I think it's fine Colette's been here a lot Viv is always mad but I think that's okay Go is always sad I don't think that one's okay

we should check on Cole more yeah yeah she doesn't want to talk to me either well that might make sense Mia scares me Mia is the one that scares me do you want to know a secret

uh huh I look over my shoulder to make sure no one's looking Mia scares me too I don't think that was as much of a secret as you thought it was is that obvious oh

she just has that effect on people you know what if you let Mia be leader for a day what if I let Mia be leader for a day what would that do like you're not in charge

Mia's in charge what if that happened I don't think that's gonna happen why not I did my experiment for you wait I did your experiment for me you do my experiment for you why do you want that what do you think what do you think she's gonna get out of that

you're just curious you were curious too they're gonna make me do more stupid things now here you owe me well okay cool but not really you suck

wait hold on don't worry I'll let I'll let Mia do her thing but like in charge of you you have to not be in charge of things it has to be her that's not how this works

yep that is okay kiddo wait hold on do you want to come to Thanksgiving yeah I can go to Thanksgiving yay you and dad can talk

yeah are you going out there or are they coming here I don't know I haven't really told mom a whole lot of what's going on yet you you want to

okay no she'll get mad yeah that's okay mm-hmm but if you're there then it's all the distraction off of me and on to you because we haven't seen you since

that wedding yeah well between you and me your mommy and daddy did it exactly care for that whole experience was it because there was no other person there

even though you have a wife who my wife there was no person we were on a mountain there well there wasn't another person there was the person saying I now pronounce you man and wife but there was no lady yeah there was a lady

a beautiful lady I've ever seen and she was all around us you I'm only coming to this conclusion because it's drugs and I don't think I would make this assumption if I weren't on drugs

but I'm making this assumption right now did you did you marry a mountain did I marry a I married my wife your wife a mountain though well my wife is my wife you know

but that's not an answer did you marry a mountain well is it that obvious what no I thought this was drugs and I just had to ask to make sure it wasn't did you marry a mountain for real for real for real for real

yeah she's my wife ah that's are you happy well I was what happened well then I came here

there isn't orphous in mountain there's no what and what there's no orpheus in mountain there is well there was orpheus in mountain but now there's no orpheus in mountain well make a new orpheus in mountain and then you can be happy and not eat beans

all right I'll work on that kiddo okay you're weird but I love you anyway sleep tight buddy good night give your mountain a kiss and then I think here is

the next thing I want to do is riding the high from being in charge of the crucible that killed a jason yeah trying to capitalize on that as much as possible I would like to make

a like official training video detailing what I call the the the Abernathy method and what the video is going to be it's going to be me in my

training outfit which is like 60's gym attire and like a weird like old green like headband scrunchy over like my matted gross hair and there's going to be like a training mannequin

out in the middle of the firing range and then I'm going to be explaining everything I did for the other inhibitors and I'm going to be like see what you want to do is you want to run at them faster than they could possibly react and you just kind of

want to scream and that'll throw them off and then I'll like catch on fire in the video and I'll be running at the mannequin and I'm just going to bear hug it and then you just kind of latch on there and then you just let gravity do the work for you is there any like

lower third text or music is this just silently well so the way this is set up is so the Abner I'm assuming took the time to really like in order to create a truly immersive experience for your students like there's really bad

like actually there's party hats so Abner found party hats and glued them to the back of this mannequin to reflect the right and so to simulate the spikes so this is what's actually happening is Abner you're lecturing a class

like a class of inbound recruits and they're just recording the lesson for future classes and so there is this ring of students around the firing range watching you do this just a guest mouths open eyes just wide it's the instructor even

who you know well from your time in the company is like what the fuck have I just done and it's all on video and then I'm going to kind of like roll up from the ground kind of like dazed a little bit as the flames are extinguishing

and there's just like a bunch of smoldering party hats kind of like crumpled up against my chest and I'm just going to look around to the group and I'm going to be like does anyone have any questions about that well everyone please thank Mr. Abernathy for

your time listen this was a great opportunity Abner we're so happy you were able to join us thanks again we're going to go back to our classroom and we're going to learn to not do that and they

that was amazing thank you for that anything else you'd like to do with your time Mr. Abernathy yeah so if I could absolutely may I ask in terms of like rough square feet how big is the Orpheus Headquarters

it is fairly big so you're really talking about two main stories and you've got three subterranean levels so a lot of square footage if you're talking about what I think you're talking about you're going to need a pretty significant vitality expenditure

yeah that's okay so one day when everything is at peak busy first let me preface this a little bit by saying that the reason I've been haunting the halls so much

you know talking up hi I'm Abernathy I killed a Jason yep the reason I'm doing that is so that I have an excuse to walk around and keep an eye on where everybody is

and specifically I want to gather feeling for when if ever Mr. Cross and the rest of the higher ups are coming in and out got it okay yeah and one day in particular after you've been

kind of making the rounds listening to some of the chatter going on in the hallways you become aware that there's going to be a board of directors meeting on the executive level on the second floor so you know a meeting is going to take place at a certain time

at a certain date on that time and on that date I'm going to be sitting in my office a few minutes before it starts with the door closed and there'll be like a poorly handwritten sign on an old

piece of a cardboard box taped to the door that says do not disturb in like ham-fisted kid letters and I'm just going to kind of start giggling to myself and be like never tried one this big

before and I'm just going to try the melt slowly into the building beautiful okay so with this no dice roll is required you just need to exert you see to spend 5

5 vitality oh my god it's that easy I am obvious so it'll last for one I'll willpower okay how much is your max vitality

my max vitality is exactly the number I need 5 got it automatically spend that willpower yep so for it to last longer than a scene you'll need to expend one vitality after that

point so it's one fewer to initiate the possession so once the scene is over you'll need to do another 4 then you'll need to do 3 I think I only need the one scene because

all I want to do is try to covertly listen in on this board meeting got it okay there are

there's all the typical usual conversations specifically the orpheus CEO in this case who is let me get the name for you sorry I wasn't prepared for this

never yeah yeah so Jack Tilton the CEO is briefing the board directors on how operations are going and the thing that stands out to you the most is that it seems like

orpheus is losing money like how much are we talking like hammer and jane or like we're just a little bit in the red they're not pulling in a profit and the cost of keeping this place up and running is exponential especially when you're talking about the technology for the sleepers to keep them and

you know mr cross mentions that his donors will ensure that the operations are able to continue on behalf of his on behalf of his employer and while your business acumen is is not

at an expert level you know enough to know that whoever cross works for is keeping this place afloat my business knowledge is actually pretty good but oh is it perfect yeah so yeah long story short like when when he talks about

the number of contracts they have the number of contracts that are projected to have for the rest of the year that is going to be a record loss for the company that they are simply just with the amount of pro bono work that they're doing in the name of quote unquote research and the amount of contracts that you have

they are there in no way shape or form positioned to make any kind of profit to offset the amount of money needed to keep it up and running so which is when mr cross mentions that provided or if he continues to render services to on behalf of his employers

they will continue to foot the bill for its operations and does mr cross at any point mention to any of the other board members does he just say my employer yes my employer he never gives a specific name

of an organization correct he does not but you do remember when he you two had your conversation he specifically said the United States Government thanks you so let me ask this then is there any kind of

in that room in that boardroom um is there a security camera video conferencing device anything that might be like recording anything there is not I didn't think I would be so lucky

yeah there is not unfortunately is there anything else like interesting going on in the building while I have a god's eye view um no nothing nothing specifically interesting you know of course

you've got classes going on in the sub levels I look at the restroom stalls yeah no I used to one abder is not interested in that two you know he's married to a mountain yeah nothing nothing it stands out to you

like seeing how other crucibles interact is probably pretty interesting to abner um you know there are crucibles that are training together in some of the physical training rooms um that are discussing recent operations are doing hot washes like they're on the white board kind of mapping out what went wrong what could have done better

um you know actual well functioning teams and so it's kind of interesting from that perspective on this point can I um going along that line while I've spent the insane amount of vitality it's a lot yeah yeah and I'm just we're torching through it like coursing

through the building like you know some kind of uh all seeing eye okay um can I just get a feeling like where the other crucibles are at like if there's like a like a like a I know there's not like a ranking system but I want to know like how we're stacking up in terms of performance

um so from what you can tell it seems like the one thing you've noticed is a lot of the crucibles are smaller and that was something you were aware of when you took over crucible 12 was that crucible 12 was kind of a new concept and where they were going to try to essentially put two cruise what would traditionally

be two crucibles like of three and four people together to see how that would function so crucible 12 is in a lot of ways an experiment so these smaller crucibles have either been together longer or have had more of an opportunity to bond with one another because of the smaller size

and um more frequent operations from what you can tell hmm but none of them have killed adjacent before none of them have killed adjacent man you're yeah uh crucible 12 is the first and you actually hear people um you know talk about them

talk about crucible 12 and the jason and what that must have been like and yeah what do they say about us in specific each member well so they don't they don't necessarily refer to the members specifically but they said hey you heard about those fuck ups and 12 they managed to kill adjacent

oh fuck ups that's us baby is there anyone in orpheus that's like accidentally locked themselves in a closet or you know in an awkward position um playing games in their office

fuck it there's two people having a trist yay nasty i think abdar's not interested in watching that but he's gonna mess with them a little bit like he's he'll take the time to like flip the lights on and off and maybe make a few like weird like

building groans you freak them out mid coitus and they they decide to maybe wait a little bit longer until they're out of work as they're trying to uh leave they try they try the doorknob

and for a second it like catches and then they just hear from the door lots of screaming lots of screaming they work at a ghost place yeah at the ghost factory that's true oh one thing i did feel to mention

i will say with the board meeting one thing that tilton the ceo did mention is that they are on track to begin installation of the corillian cameras uh for their security system here soon um there were some problems with the wiring and kind of refining the prototype but they are working on getting them

installed hopefully within the next week or two hmm okay they don't have a specific day than mine for that they want to get it done by the end of november that's good information to have um okay so how that's done

the only um the next thing i would like to do is you know as i kind of i would hold that for as long as i can sure until i eventually yeah back in my office and then i

know that those cameras aren't installed yet yep which is good um i am going to snoop around okay the executive floors okay i am going to specifically

go check all of the paper shredders okay and i'm going to try to uh maybe i'll hop in like a gen this doesn't have to be the same day this can be like sure whatever um maybe i'll like hop into like the janitor car that's clearing

out the different you know shredding bins anywhere that like important documents are like winding up yeah i'm going to kind of follow that to like its base and then i'm going to try to start sneaking bags of clippings out of the of the hq

okay roll um roll dexterity plus stealth or subterfuge i think i'm probably going to do subterfuge um

okay so dexterity and subterfuge success is a seven uh i'll give you i'll give you uh these difficulties and be eight on this one oh god i feel like i'm about to royally

fuck myself but i'm in too deep now but don't look so excited Sergio that's just for me what's your what's your pool what's your pool looking like so i had four dies okay i rolled a ten

okay critical and eight okay and eight okay and a two wow beautiful beautiful okay three successes you managed to you managed to perloin uh bags of clippings

out of you know maybe snuck some snuck in your lunchbox of beans some snuck in your bean box you know like a gym bag for training day um that's can and i have a bean box okay yeah you um

yeah and and the thing is having that reputation which i think maybe be intentional of being the crazy bean guy with the crazy bean box nobody pays any attention and you managed you managed to get if quite a few clippings out see they always

underestimate the weird old beans they do they do and all of those are going back to my old warehouse okay and i'm keeping them all um in the the safe got it where we would keep

like cash and stuff yep um and uh i'm not going to do anything with them right now okay i just want to begin rats nesting them okay and then the very last thing i'm going to do is

uh were we told to stay in town yes okay never mind i'm done okay cool that was a good one um logan uh you're eventually released from the hospital after about a week and a half uh logan is stir crazy by that point yeah they

can't call three of their friends that they would actually want to talk to colette's not there when they wake up and they try not to be sad about it they don't want to call me because she's scary yep so and logan's just been like picking

their fingers and like making like balls of any paper they'll give them beautiful yeah did you want to and this goes for anybody did anybody want to improve anything with any of your experience points uh learn anything i'm gonna hold on to mine for now okay got it

yeah i got a spite point so i'm okay okay cool um you look like you're thinking elie i just got a double check if i have enough points to up my willpower by one you might let me um so with the

expenditure let me double check y'all for you i remember the map it's like a rating times two for willpower i believe it is so you should have you should have plenty yeah i just got a double check because how much it costs to get my because i upped pools and stuff last time

like a while ago i just gotta figure out how much got it okay um yeah logan is there anything specific you wanted to do um so okay i have a question enigmas in in this game is that like knowing about ghosts specifically

or no that's like puzzles and stuff puzzles riddles yeah um but what a cult be knowing about ghosty things yeah you know um let's uh let me find a good description of that for you um

here we go so that is um grants a character knowledge of the supernatural another worldly and both theory and practice um it gives them what the ability to discern fact from fancy and this is perhaps a great gift yeah so absolutely

i think logan soup well oh no i already have a thing in that then uh two points in a cult that's true yeah i think logan's super like gets to the point of boredom and pain that they're just like i want something to distract

me so i think they they call kate and ask for um just like any research we have about jason's and about whatever whatever shaw was like a step away from specter and just reads up

because next time they're not going to get their chest carved open they're gonna fuck shit up instead fair enough all right yeah so i want to i want to use i want to use my experience points to get another bubble in a cult

beautiful yep so that is useful to my actual character yeah some of it is redacted um and compartmentalized but there there is enough in there for you to be able to tell which which is probably just as frightening there's not a lot that orpheus knows about them

um so it's both shocking to see how little is known equally shocking to see how much is redacted uh but you're able to get a better idea of how they function and essentially the the working theory is that people who take too much pigment and either voluntarily or involuntarily

separate from their bodies leave their bodies open to possession by um outside forces and jason is what specifically happens when one of those outside forces as a specter okay um and because i and because i have personal trainer i can do it at like i think it's a

like a like if it's times three i just have to do times two right yep or uh let me here's that just that for you um so if so background is current rating times three

so whatever the current rating is time times that by three and that's how much it'll cost to increase it by one more dot cool um so that'll be three so i still have a bunch of xp to use okay cool yeah i think i think logans logans week at the hospital

is is pockmarked with friends and overarchingly full of anxiety and impatience and trying to lie to their mom love that love that

um if that's it um i'm in there for pretty much the full week right yep yeah but we're uh so when we come back to it'll be uh wednesday november 21st i think until that point

about two weeks i think logan waits a while and then just texts collette i have a secret and sends it um and then tries to find koa okay um well yeah

you can always find me at orpheus i'm probably just hanging out somewhere in the smoking section yeah we can say yeah we can say there's a day where they actually brought koa in specifically a brief the banshees uh on on uh her encounter with the jason and

with the the near specter yeah yeah they're training explaining things just casually that's right did we all get called to brief our individual like yeah totally 100 percent fucking terrible

all right 100 percent i just stand at the back and watch her teach all of them and wait until she's done yeah i'll wrap them up and stuff like that and how's it going

you look good standing yeah vertical is better than not yeah what's that that you you got really

tattered in that fight yes and i know you've told us what'll happen if you i mean what do you think

happens after that i don't know that's part of the fun about it don't know do you want to stick around are you wanting to like stay

and be with all of us not us specifically but like all of us is like this whatever it is we're doing i i had my time i got to live

whatever life i was allowed to live i don't know why i'm still here something has put me here there's something more going on and i'll just figure that out until it's time when the ancestors want me to go home

shouldn't be afraid about that i'm not afraid of it i'm gonna be stuck here afterwards anyway so it doesn't matter what do you mean i mean if my body dies i'm still gonna be stuck here i'm still gonna have to do all the same shit

you're not guaranteed an afterlife even if you have the ability to do it now so you should probably enjoy the life you have it's all gonna go it's up anyway you know it doesn't have to you put in what you get out

yes i've seen us multiple times in the field there's a lot of good and a lot of bad you just gotta be able to navigate it better what are you worried about i'm not worried of course you're not i've had a lot of time by myself the last week

and i think i've just thought myself into circles and you're the one that thinks the best of all of us so i came to the thinker well elaborate what have you been thinking about

you gotta give me something it just it seems like a trick like we're supposed to live our lives

and then something shitty happens to us and then everything's different and i know change is inevitable then and i were talking about how change is inevitable but like i don't know it seems like you expect something from life and then it ends

and then it's done and i've known this for years and it just everything feels like a lie and when i try and do something to keep everyone safe everyone gets upset and when i do something stupid i get upset

i don't even know what i'm trying to say it just feels feels like a big cosmic joke i don't think anybody's mad at you for the choices you're making and for the good intentions you try to put out intentions

and impact are not the same thing no but we can get those impacts and make those results if you're willing to put in the work i mean there's nothing i'm going to tell you that's going to make you feel better because you're right

and maybe you're not here for that i get that but you know that's life bad things happen sometimes it fucking ends you can't change it so why wallow in it, why be upset about it just do be

what are you afraid of you're afraid to be and exist in life i'm dead dude there's nothing for me thank you for the reminder i know what i am if you need to also know who you are i mean you're not

that does we want you around yes and i would like that as much as time will permit but i'm prepared to go you got to get to a point where you're prepared

to be exactly who you are what you want to be i think that's the problem i've been prepared i've been ready for it forever and it just keeps coming back to this and it feels like

a shitty yo-yo shouldn't it just be clean i mean the definition of insanity is banging your head against the wall multiple times and expecting a different result maybe you aren't prepared and maybe you need to

change your perspective speaking of perspective that thing you do you go all looking into the future past i don't really know what you do

i really figured out what it does it's called for boat for boat that seems apt i don't know i just i don't pull my weight as a banshee when i yell maybe i can

try and do it more in a thinky way i would like nothing more to grow and expand your abilities to stew that but if you cannot wail you shouldn't be

looking into the past or the present if you cannot learn to understand emotion you can't be able to understand the imprints that are left behind and are in the future you will be lost and consumed by it you won't have to do it alone though wouldn't that be worth it

i mean it's kind of an alone thing you can share those visions with other banshees it's possible but i mean i got it it doesn't change the fact that you still have to be grounded so why don't you focus

on growing your wail or understanding its purpose okay i'm happy to help you if you need that um maybe another time i'm tired i'm gonna go

of course i'll be around Logan goes home Collette do you respond to that text uh yeah she writes back i've got like a million too what's yours

uh alright back it's about ab you're never gonna fucking believe it i feel like i learned something i can't believe about him every day what's new about being dead uh Logan's gonna type come have dinner

with me and i'll tell you hover their finger over the send button send it come on and then backspace a little bit oh no lunch and say

i need to get out i need to stretch my legs you want to go on a walk i have been thinking the exact same thing i'd love to i'll go get her okay okay okay you remember how i told you that when i was like 11

we went to a wedding and there was no one there i mean there were people there but like there was no person that he was marrying there and he was on a mountain me and ab we're talking about we're gonna go on a hike uh up to see it don't go on a hike with him oh my god do not go on a hike with on that mountain it was really sweet you should see the way he

talks about nature like we were talking about our hometown in seattle and how beautiful it's up there and he kept talking about us reaching the summit and seeing it it was really sweet actually mm-hmm and he told me that when we were at the wedding there

was someone there and she was all around us what he said his wife was all around us at the wedding what does that mean to you is this like a jesus thing no no

i would honestly i'd probably have a easier time understanding it if it was but that probably also comes from like my like anglicized like knowledge of religion rather than like an open you know kind of thing right you rambling right sorry what does this fucking mean

if it's not a jesus thing what is it i mean he was there there's no what he's fucking the mountain that's his wife oh no i thought i was on drugs

and like i wasn't making the connection and i'm like pulling her down to sit on a bench because like i'm getting too excited my muscles are getting tense and it's hurting so i'm making a sit down we talked about that mountain for like 20 minutes logan i know oh no

i was so excited why was that excited you can't go with him you're gonna go on like a conical visit to a mountain no okay there's no like right there's no way there's like maybe he was fucking with me right

like the beans have to be an affectation right like there's no way it's all true that man's always been weird as fuck i mean we could how you check is there like a database or people married to mountains look i i don't i know that this is sort of getting off the topic of solving

ab but does that mean that when he jumps into like the tv and things like that is that cheating is that adultery is that like a does he get off on being the cheap because we were in the cheap with him a few times like that

no he there's no way that one that one i will not ever think of that way we can't we can't do that the TV i don't know listen i've had like weird bosses before i've had pervy bosses

before but mountain fucking i mean i've seen firefighters fuck on a mountain mountain yep not the same no one's digging holes in mountain right oh god don't oh don't think about specifics

for could i not that i don't know but i don't think it's our business to tell her i just had to have this knowledge so you had to have this knowledge i couldn't have this knowledge alone well of course i'm so happy you brought it to me i mean we're both going to die

for this oh absolutely there is no way the mountain man lets both of us live he doesn't have to know you know oh god i i you don't you don't know you don't know this information you're better lying about shit like that than i am uh yeah but not about mountain

fucking that's something i talk about every second of every day what have you you've never brought up mountain fucking ever in our friendship well welcome to the second half of our friendship i think i think we should tell fin

you want to tell fin i don't want to tell fin there's like a weird thing with them i don't i know are you making trouble on purpose yes um no we don't have to but this is something like

back pocket information should i talk to him about it no don't tell him i told you this is like a virus like i feel like you gave me a hepsy or something this is a much less fun way to get there to spread it it is the

worst sdi i could be given and now everyone must have no oh i shouldn't have told i just wanted someone else to know and now i do and i thank you it's a great walk the greatest walk yeah

we gotta plan a vacation the whole gang we're all going to seattle i hate that i really want to do this i think it's probably you're just your excitement excitement that's infectious but i actually want to do this now

we all do i i don't want i don't want to be present when he does anything on the mountain i do but i why oh god so she can paint it i don't know listen a lot of people don't want to see

how this is made i am not that person i want to see it's like research it's what we do research i don't okay do you think he got into it before the ghost or after the ghost that's my last question

that seems that seems like a pre ghost thing and now that he has ghost things where he can just possess it's just even easier for him you think he goes back home and he he jumps in the mountain maybe he's not really sad when he was talking about it

though because he used to be there and i asked if he was happy because really all that that's all that matters isn't all that matters i mean there's a question of consent since it's a mountain and doesn't have sentience but oh my god

wow i never really thought of it that way yeah oh this is this is prometheus with the fire i shouldn't know this and now that i do i'm going to die because of it because

well thank you for telling me you're going on a walk with me of course we should walk more i like this i don't see nature at all i'll take you with me next time i go hiking sure we can

visit a mountain lots of in colorado maybe it runs in your blood absolutely nature love sure nature fucking nature love absolutely not just saying

i mean i said i was okay to watch if it's not a person i'm not in well that is excluding a lot of fun you are twisting my words and it's very fun that's all

thank you for this information yeah don't tell anyone me no okay no but think about it like this we have to have a cool reveal for it that's the thing i'm pretty good with cool reveals okay but

like don't do it without me i want to see your own face trust me when it is revealed everyone will be present okay now i feel bad like i'm betraying his trust now this feels bad no i would never do it to hurt bean dad but

the world needs to know love is a powerful thing it needs to be shared look celebrated appreciate love is love love is love a message from may day

go to your mountain today happy earth day happy earth day happy earth day hey be a aristocrat anything else no i think i've taken up more than

enough of everyone's time no you're good to go so to bring this to a close we'll go to the week of thanksgiving towards the end of November thanksgiving in 2018 falls in the 22nd just thursday you know that orphi's headquarters is going to be having its annual

holiday it's annual thanksgiving party for the company on wednesday the 21st the evening right it's big to do they're going to be offering people who want to volunteer as designated drivers pay time off like it's a big deal they're going to have food, booze

the whole nine yards it's going to be a good way to start ringing in the holiday season and then everybody has paid time off the day of thanksgiving that Friday to going into the weekend so it's going to be a big deal on wednesday November

21st Logan, Colette and Abner you get texts from Kate saying need you at headquarters 911 multiple explanation points

i think right as soon as the message sends i just kind of rise out of Kate's floor and i'm like so what's the deal oh shit she jars but you notice that she does not she looks not just nervous she looks terrified

uh oh is this because it came out of the floor again you need to get Abner you need to get everybody here now like right now right now do not tell anyone other than your crucible meet me

meet me in briefing room B on the second floor alright 15 minutes i sink back into the floor and go back to my office and start calling everybody when you all eventually convene

you all see this too Kate is scared can i extend a vitality point to try to soother yeah absolutely yeah thanks i have a quick question

yeah absolutely i don't have five lethal damage anymore right no no you are at we'll bring you up to injured three successes for one expense one vitality expenditure okay yeah you soothingly

whisper kind of use your voice to soother and she begins to calm down but there's still almost like this look of panic we've had a crucible go missing where boulder crucible five

one of their sleepers is dead dead dead we know that means that they died in the pod they died in the pod which means their spirit was probably annihilated as well boulder we sent we sent crucible five

up to boulder there was another ghost quake an object came through based on reports we sent them to get it do we know what the epic was i'm like looking kate yeah it was like a rock from what some of the reports we got were

we sent them up to get it we sent them up to map it we sent them up to talk to some of the nearby residents dead and living find out where it originated to find out they went off the radar last night their sleeper died some time

overnight there was four of them there was alex parry their spirit he's missing we don't know where he is could you tell us what they were also like what their designation was within the crucible yeah alex yeah alex was a haunter

shane ramos was their sleeper he's a skin writer he's the one who passed away sometime last night sorry i should have had this for the other one we lost beth cooper

she was a is she is a skimmer she's a skimmer she's a wisp and she looks at you viv ben cotton what do you mean

what do you mean he was the crucible lead we don't know where he is he said you didn't know anything about why these quakes happened is that still true we have no idea we know something came through the other side

yeah and since we looked for it we don't know where they are so what are we doing are we finding them or are we figuring out what this thing is and stopping it both if you can get up there get up to boulder

find them retrace their steps their objectives were examine the impact site talk to any witnesses in the area find out what the effects were if there's any injuries establish the area of affected locate

retrieve debris if there's any document it we totally expected them to stay overnight and if they you know if there's anybody we told them if there's anybody suffering from the ill effects like ghosts, any people that

endure trauma that we would send somebody to go get them exam back here at headquarters we haven't heard from them when was the last time the crucible checked in the last time we heard from them was at the briefing they were sent out yesterday

they were sent out yesterday and it's been 24 hours how how long were they out before they went poof 8 hours well so that means they didn't get slaughtered instantly that's better

and the only indication we have of them going missing is their sleeper dying in the pod yeah and I assume they stopped answering their cell phones and things like that we haven't zero contact with them okay

we'll find them we'll find them don't tell do not tell anyone as far as everybody here is concerned the party is continuing everything's fine we do not want anybody to panic

okay let's go discreet cleanup crew beep beep I'm a jeep what's that Mia you want to ride in the driver's seat car okay let's go and what's that we'll bring today's chapter to a close

what if instead we just played all day yeah right absolutely we're gonna take our second break that's right we need everybody here for the finale we need everybody

so that's it everybody hope you had fun watching we had fun playing this was a good time definitely love these beach episodes yeah thank you so tune in next time date to be determined we got to get together after this and figure out when we're gonna have our finale but as soon as we know you will know

and join us next time as we bring book one don't look back to a close in the meantime thanks for joining us and we'll talk to you soon bye guys music music

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