Worlds Beyond Number - Solari: Episode 2 - Pull/Cull

Episode Date: March 31, 2026

Uninvited guests invade the Vice Rooms. The young scion of Iverex assembles his entourage. Questions hang in the air like bullets, flung towards the inevitable. Something isn’t adding up. This Pull was supposed to be simple…Content Warning: This episode contains depictions of violence. We are:Brennan Lee MulliganErika IshiiAabria IyengarLou Wilson Solari was produced by Worlds Beyond Number Edit and Sound Design by Jino Jang-Hansen at Big Giant Head Score by Will Savinohttps://wsavino.com/ Director of Operations: Melanie Bowman Social Media Manager: Shannon H Lorekeeper and Transcriptionist: Jack Morgan E.F. Lavandowska  Recording Engineer: Rainie Toll Character Art by Nikolas Draper-Iveywww.instagram.com/nikolasdraperivey/ Cover Art by Lu Tomkiewiczwww.instagram.com/_fromlu/ This campaign uses the Stillfleet TTRPG system, created by Wythe Marschall and developed by Stillfleet Studiohttps://stillfleet.com/collections/stillfleetYou can find transcripts of all our episodes on our Patreon. Just navigate to the post for the episode and the transcript will be attached.

This is the sound of worlds beyond number. Weak not for the great unbecoming. It is only the flaw of the finite manifest in our most ancient cells that names chaos a serpent with head and tail apart. All is consumed. Change and be changed. The hymn of one. Six hired hands arrive in the private physic parlor

occupied by a scion of one of the five families of the 40 sons. won Zadavin Iverex. With him, having to this point shared in a hallucinogenic trip is a squeaky-clean septimality of the automaton faction known as the Arina, Exelzeal. And behind the might-be assassins, undetected by all, is a lone live figure that is no stranger to sudden violence. The infamous bloody artisan and de facto leader of Genipar, Chi Tanka, you are.

all in a room. So intimate and quiet, dark, red, and plush. But it's suddenly too small, too close, as all three of you from your different vantage points are aware that six incredibly armed figures are moving in your direction. Guns are being raised, orders are being yelled. I think it's time to roll initiative. Oh. Oh, we do that. So I'm going to need everyone to make a move roll. And if you have any bonuses to initiative, go ahead and add those in. Oh, that's a one.

Okay. Okay. Are you rolling a D20? Ah. That's a one. Oh, no. Roll the one on a D20 and a one on a D8. What are the odds?

I've also rolled a one on a D8. Please, no. Which means. that I still also have my bad half of a quibble because it doesn't get used up by a genuine failure. Oh, good, good. I appreciate your honesty. Z, what did you get? A three.

And then both of you guys rolled ones. One. I think as the armed men come in, I just open my arms wide and go, hello? I think I'm still hanging back. All right, we can explain narratively. That feels good to me. Great. faces and discernible features are covered.

Black or dark blue or dark green, it's impossible to tell the nuance of color inside of this room, especially with like the way the lights on Zadavon's private wall were sort of flashing. You know it's dark, but everything from like fingertip to eyes is covered by some manner of either protective armor or just visual identification

dampeners. You hear a mechanically distorted voice come out of the front leading figure who's holding a massive two-handed weapon. Z, you see that, like, this person is rounding on you, but never actually levels the weapon at you. It's just sort of a 45-degree angle to the ground,

like clearly intended for you, but not openly threatening you. Identify yourself. You know, the fuck I am. I'm going to need you to say it. Fine. Zadavon Ivirx.

You know what this is, yes? I'm not a fucking child. Are they with you? And you see this person gestures, not just at Excelsiel, but some of the other, like, physicians and patrons in the room. Zadavin looks around,

I think, still kind of blinking his eyes, shaking off the effects of the hallucinations. in a gin. I'm here alone. And with that, you hear like a mechanically distorted whistle comes out from behind whatever face piece is blocking this person's mouth. And the rest of the six are going to start pointing weapons at other people and beginning to fire. Okay.

Yeah. It's not my turn yet. So I guess new world, new game, new rules. Like I guess there are things I'd like to do, but I think I'm, when is the proper time to do them? You know what? Kind of walking through the amount of initiative here, you rolled fairly well. This is not a, not everyone did a great job. So I think you're only going to see two of the five that are clearly following orders from this leader are going to get initial shots off.

But they seem to be hitting like low in the leg and they're going to drop two people that were sort of scrambling and running and still look visibly high, patrons that were scrambling for the door, just get dropped by the door. And now you're up. Great. I have an ability called Smooth Over. Oh. I'll read it to you if you'd like. I mean, please do.

I was very excited for a fight. You can calmly smooth over misunderstandings, the kind that do many planet side runs. Burn three grit for an easily remedied bad situation, five for a difficult one, and seven for a nearly impossible one. roll a cha-check. If you succeed, all works out for now. If you fail, then I have to roll again to see if it gets worse. Okay. Okay. I will say the difficulty on this is going to be, it's not impossible, but it is a nine. So how much grit are you burning? I guess if it is a difficult one, then I have to burn five grit and then roll a chaw-check. with the difficulty of six. Oh, okay.

I understand. That's great. It's difficult. So, yeah, difficulty of six. Okay. Roll me charisma. All right. I'm going to burn six grit.

Amazing. Now I understand. We're learning together. We're learning as we go. All right. And then I'm going to roll a D10. I add plus one to all cha rolls. That's a five plus one for a six.

Ooh. Let's go. Okay. Is there anything else in that ability about the adjudication? There's a lot of stuff around if I fail, but it says that if you succeed, all works out. In parentheses, for now, you can always re-blunder. Okay, I love that. Go ahead.

This does work out, but I'm curious. Go ahead and give me a reason roll, and we'll make the difficulty six to match. Okay, fantastic. That means I need a maximum roll as I roll a D.C. six on reason. I get a three. Okay. Just know that because we're in initiative, you can also boost your rolls. Oh, tell me more.

So boosting is you can burn like three, six, or nine of your grit and add that to the roll. I guess I'll burn three for one, six for two or nine. No, it works one for one. Oh, shit. Got it. So if I burn three more grit, I get the six necessary. I apologize. I was like, let me double check it before you say it. Ah, you've rolled faster than I could slowly check this.

I apologize. But that is something like in combat, anyone can do. And it's also like a mechanic to move through combat faster because it just makes sure that you are more likely to hit and get things done. Got it. I think I'm not exactly sure the outcome of this reason role. But I think I'm, I want to succeed. So I will burn three more grit for a total of nine. Grit burned, seven grit remaining to add to the reason world to get a six.

Sweet. You are looking for a way to de-escalate what is clearly a fight. People are screaming. You see them dropping. You can smell a little bit of blood in the air. Though, again, you are aware that those were very non-lethal shots fired on people that were fish in a very plush barrel. And I think you go back to what you have known your whole life as a sion of one of these five families and as a trint that this is a pull or cull.

Sometimes these abductions happen and they are from people outside of your family and those tend to be for political reasons and as minimally violent as they need to be. because it's like an act of leverage. If this was from someone inside of your family making a play on you, like within your cast or trying to move up, they wouldn't be aiming for non-combatants. You would have been the target and you would have, you would be on the ground by now. Yes.

So knowing that, I think it's really easy for you to suss out how to de-escalate this because you know that this is a pull, not a call. So why don't you break it? down for me and what you say. I think Zadavin comes out of this hallucinogenic state into this moment of danger, having experienced polls and calls before. And I think it's at the forefront of his mind that this is a political Kipnet, like, it's at the forefront

of his mind that he is the target in this moment. And I think in the exchange with the lead of this group. I think there's almost like a certainty of kind of the order of operations in Zadavin's mind that is actually interrupted by the fact that they chose to shoot on people. Like, their choice to like cause more chaos, which I don't think Zadavin is interested in or comfortable with. And so I think Zadavn kind of stands upright and gets right in this man's face and goes, listen, asshole, is this your first time kidnapping someone?

Is this your first time kidnapping someone? Tell me fucking right now, is this your first time kidnapping someone? Why the fuck are you shooting non-combatants? You dumbass? What, are you trying to make a name for yourself? You're trying to make a scene? What the fuck is wrong with you? Grow the fuck up.

Let's walk out of here like men and fucking leave these people to their physics. I love that the moment you like close distance with this leader, the gun drops and... I'm going to put a hand on his weapon and point it at the ground. He allows you to push it down and his hand, goes up to like maintain a little distance. Like if it wasn't incredibly obvious to everyone else in this room now, that like no one's going to shoot you. You can see that they're beginning to argue,

but we're going to keep moving through turn order as you begin to interact with the leader. The rest, like the other three of my, my bad boys, are now just sort of turning and watching their leader in a close argument, with you and no longer firing on everyone else. So let's go move to between the two of you, who would like to go first at the bottom of initiative? I would not like to go first. Okay.

She what you got? I think by this time I've caught up, I've taken a beat to take everything in. And I think at this point, I would like to use my class power of command and speak with the, leader that I see in an altercation with Zedavan. So you want to pull the leader from the like argument with Z?

Or to join this. I'm going to use this command to join this altercation. Okay. Give me a reason rule. I'm going to say a difficulty is a five. Five. Good. I think the moment you like solidify that plan, you take your first step into the open where you know no one has seen you still to this point. You've been able to hang in the back, watch what's going on. You know the moment you move into the open, you will pass into like the vision of these other soldiers who may not enjoy you rocking up on their leader. I'm just offering that up. You can do what you want with it. But there is something to the like, I'm losing my advantage here by moving into the open. And these, like this group seems maybe minorly deterred by whatever.

is going on with Z, that may not hold for everyone in this room. Feel free to continue with command, but I'm just offering you a little bit of like court vision for what this room is like. Thank you for the government. Of course. Yeah. I just don't like, I'm not trying to like press you into a certain behavior, just making sure you, you are aware of like what the scenario is. You said there are three people that have the guns? Six people with guns. Six people. And they all have guns. Yeah. Six people. They all have guns. One is in close. I wouldn't say combat in an absolute argument with Z. Five more in the room. Two have taken shots and dropped people that you know are clearly patrons who are fleeing for the exit. The remaining patrons standing still or everybody's starting to panic. I think everyone was panicking immediately.

You also have like your physicians who immediately dropped back and are against the. wall going like, we're not. Everyone employed by you has like an amount of crisis training that is freeze and comply. Patrons are the ones that are scrims scrambling out of the room. So you know there are probably eight or nine people in this room, inclusive of the two that are dropped by the door. The patrons were panicking already. And now they are beginning to freeze because they saw that two got shot. All right. Yes. Okay. In that case, strike everything instead of command. From my vantage point, I can see things are turning sideways, but that the young Sion has everything under control in his corner.

So I move in, slowly hands raised, and I call to my physicians and the remaining patrons. All right, everyone, you know the drill. Calmly and quietly, please comply with these officers' orders. We want to get this done as quickly, and efficiently as possible. All right, quickly, quickly. I love this.

The only reason I'm going to say that this is a very difficult role and not just a difficult role is because everyone on your payroll listens to you without a doubt. They would have done that no matter what. They are well trained. You just need to overcome the sort of blood panic of high people. And this charm role is also goal. going to, like, as the other officers round on you, this is your opportunity to, like, let them know that what you're coming in to do isn't a faint or a veiled threat, that you are

actually trying to get this to happen as smoothly as possible. I nod to them as I move forward. Arms raised slowly and calmly. My body language is incredibly non-threatening. and I would also like to use command on the patrons specifically. So at least one of them will get hit with, I'll say, I'll choose two targets, perhaps the most panic looking of them. So I burn five grit per target, and it's my charm versus their will.

So you're going to burn 10 grit to try to target? Okay. So this is going to be a difficulty of nine. And I just want to remind you that boosting, because we are still, an initiative is an option. So burning three, six, or nine grit to add to your role overall. I won't do it. And that is a critical success of 12 plus 1 for 13.

Amazing. Your voice comes in. It's not preternatural, but sometimes it feels like it is. These spaces that you move through, spaces that you built both by hand and by will. It's like a lair action. You speak and the room catches your sound and it somehow both amplifies it so no person cannot hear your words over the sound of their own racing heart. But also, it makes your voice soft like the walls are soft and reassuring. And you see two patrons who were considering whether or not to aid the two people that were shot on the ground or make their,

own break for it, who were absolutely in the crosshairs of these other officers, pause and watch you and freeze entirely. And the guns trained on you leveled at your head and your heart, unlike the lead officer who never pointed his weapon at anywhere important on Z. They'll turn, and again, you can't see features. They're all huge. seven and a half feet tall, on average. And they give you a little nod and kind of give you the head to, like, move forward into the room to corral the non-important people here. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. All right, everyone, this way, if you please, you, of course, will be calmed for your stay here.

And as you begin to sort of rustle up the non-combatants, we move to Excelsio. Seeing these charismatic, commanding figures that have so quickly, like, brought order and a sense of, like, look at their ability to take what seemed to be the worst thing that had happened in recent memory for Excelsial and just command. Like, I think Excelsior's like, look at these people that even as something bad is happening to them, seem to, be filled with confidence and the ability to command, there's like something, like, the command that they've had because they are on the bottom of this interaction. Excelsia, I'll just whisper to myself, blessed contradiction. And I'm going to put my hands together. And I'm going to whoever is geographically closest to me.

me, I clasp my hands together in a look of either religious prayer or servant class like obeisance and just start to follow someone like I work for them. I think the most obvious thing here is that you were standing near Z as you both were sort of breaking camp from your shared high. So I'll say that you are absolutely in the pocket with him and this like scrum captain if you want to stay there anyone else sort of like randomly in the room has been effectively shepherded by uh chi so unless you want to follow chi like i think your big options here are do you want to look uh do you want to fall in behind chi or z oh that's fun cheesy oh no cheesy cheesy cheesy

I am going to, I'm nearest to Zadavon. I think I just fall. I think I want to take as few steps as possible with these guns out and around. So I'm going to just fall behind Z in a way that it's literally like the Homer Simpson stepping into the bush of just slow, soft movements, hands go up and take a little quarter step to the back. and left of Z, right in court vizier pose. Just literally like, I will be able to walk out of the room if I hold my hands like this and look like I'm moments away from going sire. Amazing.

I like that a lot. The moment you drop back to do so, you hear another one of, These like five assailants says something out loud. It's clearly mechanically scrambled so that it is not human, like, parsable human language. What are we just to do it? And in the middle of arguing with Z, the leader responds in like a similar garbled tone back and forth. In this moment, would you like to interact with that conversation or spend your

time focusing on, oh, ooh, ooh, ooh, oh, oh. There's something on the sheet. There's something on the sheet. I've got something for this. What's that, lassie? She fell down the well. I have an ability called listen, and I don't remember what it does. But the important thing is I have it.

Is there a book? We got a book. We got a book. Hold on, hold on. We got it. You practice psychology and help someone relieve stress and no cost other. This is your therapy ability. This is your therapy ability.

Oh, my God. Okay, so listen is for therapy and not for unscrambling coded messages. I would like to. Having said that, we have established that you are, like you can communicate with mechanical situations. And this is a mechanical scrambling. Yes, I would like to mechanically unscramble this if I can. Yeah. What do you use on your little sheet?

I think... What upon your sheet will you use to unscramble the message? I think I would like to use, I think this would be a reason used text. ability. 100%. Okay. All right. This cannot be easy. So once again, let's go very difficult, which is going to be nine. Great. And I think we're on the back half of your quibble, are we not? Yes, we are. All right. What does that mean for the folks at home? Back half of the quibble means I re-rolled a failure before, which means I have to rerroll a success. But first, I have to get a success. That is a failure. I can burn a certain amount of grit, though.

How does that work? So I can burn, it's one to one, right? Yes, it is. But it has to be in increments of either three, six or nine. Gotcha. I will burn six grit to get to nine to re-roll. Okay, great. That's crazy.

That's a five. Okay. I will burn six grit again. So I'm going to blast through 12 grit. I am still dripping dishwrecked. dishwasher fluid. I am, or like water from the dishwasher. No, no, dishwasher fluid. I just made myself unhigh after going on a trip with Zadavin. And I hear this like scrambled mechanical talk

and I have to burn through more than half of my grit. But I will say I have 22 grit points. I'm like made of grit. Oh shit. I think you can hear my circuitry inside of my chest heating up as I unscramble this, this stuff. I'm like, you can hear the fucking writing on the discs inside me as I'm like, okay, unscramble this. And I would like to unscramble what they've said. Yeah. I actually like that idea that like you start heating up from the center of your chest and we can see that like thin patina's the wrong word, but I am going to use it, of like wetness across your plating just immediately starts to dry and spreads in a heat pattern. And I guess you steam just a little bit, a little hot plate action for you.

I think Z is still very much in this confrontation with the lead officer. But I think this is the moment where I realize that you've moved into a position directly behind me. As you warm up behind and to the left. I sound like the noise a laptop makes when you're like, I got to stop working in bed. That was too personal and like that one bit. Fans are going. I think you hear, the first thing you hear as you press with that extra bit of grit, your brain processes it like a voice. Not supposed to let you hear.

That's my job. That's what he's saying? He says, no, no, no. You're hearing the actual, like, mechanical component, the voice scrambler is talking to you. Oh, I will say I'll go, ah, understood. You don't have to let me hear their voice. But I know that you heard their voice, and it wouldn't be wrong for you to tell me in your own voice what they said.

And I think you hear behind, again, all of this is like the mental construction to anthropomorphize very mechanical concepts and constructs. But it's almost like you can hear this machine's own little laptop fan of logic kick on to try to like mentally justify. And it works. And they go, that works. This one is saying they were unaware that there's an arena. You're an arena. Yes. And you are given just a little bit of lead to know regarding the first person who spoke. She was unaware on the assignment that you would be a part of the contingent for the Averex.

and the leader Keir is trying to convince the first one to shoot you anyway should I tell them to know what if I don't? Your job, your number one function is to protect the people

whose voices you are modulating, correct? Correct. The leader will come to extreme danger if I am shot. Every time the leader suggests to shoot me I think you should scramble the voice to say, don't shoot me. And you hear something akin to a laugh that is both pleasant and mischievous. And you hear it.

And I think every, yeah, I think it's just you. Excelsiel, you hear something a little sharp and discordant in the return volley. as this leader is speaking, the speed of the communication that you had with the translate, like the scrambling device, is such that it's re-scrambling the words coming out. And you can hear in the earpiece of the first one that spoke that they are getting a different message than the one that's being spoken aloud. The message has been garbled, and you see that that first person lowers their gun.

I am going to I am going to look see that this has been partially scrambled and I think I would like to in this moment I guess that's my turn so I'm just going to stay posted up behind Zee. Perfect. And I think with that we come back to the top of initiative

and now our front person who was identified via the scrambler as Keer though you don't know that yet, Z. It's still hand on your chest, gun lowered by your hand, is just, sir, I have done this before, and I need you to be a little less confrontational. Fine. I'm happy to be less confrontational if you'll act like you've done this before. What do you want for me?

You said the others weren't a part of this, and I have orders. I know you know how this works. You probably sent. No, the last thing I want is for people to think that when they've been, pull in a Vyrix that there's going to be chaos, all right? You pull in a Vyrix, it goes well, things are easy, all right? I want easy. I like easy.

It is easy. Neither of them are going to die unless we continue arguing, then they bleed out on the ground. They're all non-lethal rounds. Does Z have a comms piece in his ear? Does he have any ability to, like, I don't know if you had like a phone or even like an air pod or something that you were like listening to? I'm sure. Sorry, I didn't think about the one air pod in.

Yeah. I mean, I think that I probably, I don't have an air pod on, but I'm probably still, I'm still wearing the incredibly expensive sunglasses. I have, I don't have any sort of technological implants or modifications, but I'm sure with the amount that I paid for these sunglasses, they probably have some features or things like that that I don't use that often. but I'm sure they are quite technologically advanced. I prefer the aesthetic and the name brand.

Can I put some text on the inside of Z's glasses that just says the person to whom you are speaking is named Kear? Yeah. I'll make it a simple role. Give me another one of those tech roles. Difficulties only six. That's a 10. Yeah. Is there anything else you want to add to the information?

I think I'll add to the information that whatever mission briefing they had, it was not transmitted solely through Keir. His subordinates seem to be aware of the mission briefing as well. Great. So that appears kind of in writing on the interior of my sunglasses. Can I get a font check? It is straight up like, would you have gotten glasses that have the ability to have text written on them or no? I think that there is an amount of technology in the glasses with regard to the, you know, you know, You know, what are the...

Transitions lessons? Yes, exactly. Like, there is an inside outside. So I think there is an amount of tech within the glasses that could, I think, substantially be... Or you could use things that are not meant to create text to create text. In that case, your smooth transition lenses that are, like, moody and cool and help with relaxation, get a really ugly reboot box of, like, factory setting, like, source code, flip. And it comes up.

And in something that is literally like the underlying code of how the glasses are programmed, you just see a new paragraph indent into a line of indecipherable code that says, Hello, this is a message from Excelsiel standing behind you. I'll put this code back as soon as I'm done. This gentleman seems like written out. I think I will clock that. And as to kind of, I think, not fully give away that we are communicating. communicating. I'm going to see it, read it, take my sunglasses off, and rub my eyes.

It's Keir? Uh, it is? Yes. Great. Keir, I know things, Keir. I understand how things work. Okay, she must have told you we were. Sorry, go ahead. She did. She did. So, let's get this over with. Okay. Sure. Uh, Hey. And again, secondary, like, short burst of three whistles.

And all of this entire group sort of falls in behind Keir. And they are fully leaving Chi to her work in the corner. And Keir is going to gesture to have you sit back in that, like, little private corner of the room that you were in before. Keir, I want to apologize. In the heat of the moment, I misspoke. I am here with my associate Excelsio. he's been contracted to work for me for the past couple of months, and so wherever we're going, he will be joining me. Understood.

Uh, apologies. Sir, thank you for clarifying. And you see that Keir now turns to you, Excelsiel. Apologizing for not, understanding your station when this began. Please, if you will. And gestures now for both of you to go sit in the booth. Of course. Thank you. I'm going to pick up my shirt.

my clothes that I took off for our co-trip and redress myself as I take my seat. Yeah. As you're redressing, Chi, does the name Keir working for a female employer probably associated with the five families mean anything to me? Okay, give me a difficulty seven intrigue role, and I will give you what you can suss from this moment. That's a one. No!

No. No. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. You like try to think and line up that name to something you know about the five families. I think you also realize that even if you don't know the phrase like pull and call, that might be something a little inside baseball for you, that these sort of like...

I do know that kidnappings, orchestrated kidnappings are a part of the culture. 100%. 100%. But the big thing here is Keir is an extraordinarily common name across the system that is dominated by the Jemis Octavo family. Like that name exists in other systems,

but if you're just going like, oh yeah, it's like hearing of specific ethnicity name and going like, great, I can like get it close to a region, especially with as distributed as the galaxy tends to be. All right. So I've corralled the patrons. Things are starting to calm down now in general in the club. They're not calming down.

You did roll a one. I rolled a success for the calming. Right. I'm saying that there is a mechanical consequence to the fact that you just rolled a one. I see. So this is no longer an active fight. You have that like sense of panic calming down. But you do see that like the situation remains tense.

And your patrons, especially the two that were panicking, having listened to you, are now slowly beginning to spin up again. And you do have two patrons that were shot in the leg and hip that are being treated by your, like, physicians on staff, but they're not in a good way. This is triage. All right. The room's out of combat. You're kind of not quite out of combat yet because you own this place.

Does that make sense? Yes. This is my nightmare. It's something like this should be fairly routine. We are in a very delicate political situation right now as a whole colony. And I turn back towards the trince and I say, Master of Vorex is everything taken care of? I look up at Kier is everything taken care of.

As long as you're cool, calm and confident, I'm cool, common confident. That's how I like to work. I'll look over, Ms. Tonka, I'm so sorry. I believe me and my associates will be on our way in just a second, and I beg you to please put all of this on my tab. All right, I am somewhat nullified by this. Thank you. Very well.

I believe it is standard procedure for the house that is doing the pulling or the calling to take care of the bill. Is that... This is a bluff. I'm just, I'm going to make you roll for a, you have to make some sort of bluff check here. You can tell me what you want to roll for that. Charm? Sure. Difficulty of a nine.

11 plus one. You actually see one person towards the back kind of round. on you. How about you don't worry about the bill and take care of your people? I would think someone trained in this culture would understand that it's gauche to discuss money in the middle of this kind of negotiation. Ms. Tanka. Not discussing money is the purview of those who have quite a lot of it and don't have to worry about it. However, I hint taken and I will give it to, I will contact your house, put it on their tab. Fantastic, Ms. Tanker.

Thank you so much. Appreciate them. Very well. And I busy myself with the rest of the patrons, ushering them out. I think the moment you start, like, ushering patrons out and you move towards the door, that same officer is actually going to, like, grab you by the shoulder and go, You know what? Since you have so many opinions on how this is going, why don't you go take a seat too?

I'm sorry, with the rest of the patrons or with your... One of us is holding a gun. Go sit in the corner. Great. And I make a hand gesture to some of the physicians in charge and allow them to go over. And I move over towards Excelsial and Zedavin. As you're parting, Astrid's specific. who's taking care of like the patch up that gets people out of the door is going to kind of lean into you. Is there anything you need? Are you, should we do something?

Please just make sure that the rest of this gets smoothed over. This is a very good parlor and I would not like the reputation to be trashed by one altercation. Okay, should I inform it? Oh, okay, okay, okay. And you see that because she is now sort of being stared down by, again, this masked figure, she moves out. Right. It's just kind of giving you the wide-eyed like, I want to help.

I do not want to be touched by bullet. I sort of gesture with my hands in the universal simmer down gesture. Yeah. She nods and you see her sort of move back into her a more efficient version of her brain as she like moves out of the door and makes sure everyone gets into these hallways. and stays relatively calm and quiet as they move down, and you are escorted over to this little sitting area. I'm going to look over at Chi.

Hello, I'm Excelsio. Hello, Exelvio. I am Chi Tanga, the proprietor of this establishment. You are contracted here to Master Iverix, yes? Oh, yep. Hmm. Yep. Do you not...

Um, Madam Tanka, you are the proprietor of these parlors, correct? That's right. Are you aware of my employment status? I was not aware that we had in Irina. Dang, I guess I really don't work here. Okay. Well, you are welcome nonetheless. Thank you. I have deeply enjoyed my time here and have tried to be as helpful as possible.

I think I may have mistaken a conversation with an altered gas. as an offer of contractual employment in this place. But the person who offered it was, again, chemically altered and may not have understood that they did not have the authority or indeed financial means to contract my service. Well, easy come, easy go. It seems like we'll have to find some way to compensate you for your free labor. No, no, it's okay.

That would be untoward. And as you've said, I work for... Sorry, who did you say you were? Zadavon. Nice to meet you, Zadavon. What line of work are you in? Are you saying this at a volume people can hear? I look over as I say that out loud, and I say,

is a question that I often get asked? I think, yeah. People are unfamiliar with the arena. I'm happy to, I answer Excelsio's question. I don't think my eyes have left Kears. I'm locked into the continuing interaction. I think happily, I think, listening to, like, them banter. But I think it's, I'm thrown off again by the irregularity of bringing chi into this.

And so I think I've again kind of staring daggers into Keir wondering what his next move will be. Yeah, you are buttoning up your shirt now having sort of redressed yourself, redressed yourself. Redress is a different word. You finish buttoning up. But it should mean that. It should. It should. Fuck!

You finish reclothing yourself and you are staring at Keir who is going to sit down across from you and lowers, like, takes off the sort of like eye-blocking glasses and you see alabaster skin and like pale, unnaturally gray eyes and a little tuft of like white, short, spiky hair peeking out from under his helmet and he lowers like the lower face mask that was part of the like equipment to alter. and boost his voice. And you see that he's got like chiseled jaw. He's just a very standard looking person from the Jemis Octavo system.

And he's got one of those mouths that you can tell, like he's had his jaw broken several times. And it's just reset weirdly every time this is a career fighter. And as he kind of sits, he like pulls a chair, all of his other associates

are going to stay standing and kind of round off this corner of the parlor and make it a closed room for you. Again, all their guns are lowered. But as he sits and kind of reveals his face, he's also going to reach to his left shoulder and removes a little like black patch that was covering up the sign of Jemis Octavo, which you would recognize a little like diamond symbol, a green field with sort of geometric lightning bolts surrounding a seven peddled blossom. He's locked in eye contact with you too and kind of quickly glances over and like sees chi joining. There's a little bit of a micro expression that it seems like that was not an order that he would have made. It's just another strange thing happening simultaneous with like whatever

this moment is as he like relaxes and gets down to the business of a pole. And he takes a big breath and kind of puts his hands on his knees and goes, So did you know Isolt was going to pull you? Or is this any kind of a surprise? You sit here looking at a man who has said a name you know well and no carries a level of reverence and respect, equivalent if not minorly eclipsing your own. So I want to ask you Z,

do you recognize this man, this cure, in the context of the Jemis Octavo faction? Because you 100% know the name is Old Jemis, the person he works for. I would say that Zadavon has a clear delineation in his head about names, faces, and hands shook that he should remember. and those that he should not. And I would say that Isolt Jemis and the people who she holds in high regard, those are people worth knowing and remembering. So I think if there is an interaction that I've witnessed in the past between Isolt and Kier, I would have chosen to remember or made the effort to remember his face and his place in her retinue.

If he is a grunt, someone who just works for her, If there's not like a apparent intimacy or value in that relationship, I would have forgotten him immediately. Nice. Okay. Then I think it is this. You recognize his face, but you never needed to or were offered the opportunity to learn his name. Kier is just as good a blank name as any. But you've definitely seen him before, though the last time I think you would have seen. seen as old. She's only a couple years older than you. So in that very like mutual adolescence between these like storied families, like she had some obvious affection for you coming up, whether that was the beginnings of a crush or just that sort of like older sister energy of like we both get it and we're at this fancy party together. Here is absolutely that level of guard

that would have been put on sion detail that would have been young enough for her to have a little crush on before. So I think you just recognize his face as like guard this person I know and get along with that she has a little affection for but probably has reasonably outgrown in the subsequent decades. Got it.

Great. I think I'd also like to make a role in this moment. I have advantage on roles to sense motive. Ooh, yeah. In this moment of like relaxed calm, I've been pulled before. This has happened to me. This kind of sitting debrief moment

as I look at Keir. I think there's part of me, Lou, wondering if it would just be normal for me to be on the ship right now and on my way. And if this kind of debrief or discussion moment is normal or abnormal. Ooh, I love that. Let's go, let's say the difficulty is seven, but for every increment of two above that that you roll, I'll give you extra information.

And his advantage in this game, roll twice, take the higher roll? Absolutely. If it's different, I've forgotten it and that doesn't matter. An 11 on the first roll. Okay. An 11 on the second roll. A consistent king. There it is. Okay, that is two steps above the floor of information. So, yeah, feel free to, like, tag on any follow-up questions that would seem nigh impossible to clock, and we will have your, like, sense motive be deeply incisive in this conversation. But, yeah, I think there, you've been polled before. You have seen polls.

You've seen a call or two in your day also. Coles tend to be very, for the sake of getting wet work done, very matter of fact, they happen, everyone clears out, and then the why of it gets explained later as the family begins to talk. Polls tend to be quite genteel and based on the relationships and things being asked. Sometimes they are a little more conversational. you've heard of polls though you have not experienced one where it really was just sort of like a handshake like it felt like a game of tag where they're like we got you can you just do the thing now thank you so much we're so sorry for interrupting your meeting just left within 20 minutes yes so there's a high there's high variance to it this feels like a particularly kind one especially now that

you know that like not just that it's coming from jemis octavo but that it's coming from someone that's very much in your cohort. Yes. Great. I think in that case, yeah, Z is also, I think, going to take a more relaxed posture. And I think as that question comes to him, is going to respond, didn't hear from her directly. Sources, just the sort of tip that these sorts of, I don't know, that something like this might happen. Fascinating.

And I will offer you, because I really like that sense, motive. role. It looks like he is trying to square something in his head that there is something about this mission briefing and that little extra information that you got from Excelsiel that everyone here knew about some level of briefing that isn't squaring with and somehow you figured out we were coming. I think I say that something unusual about this poll. You guys guns out shooting people. I mean, This seems to be a little bit more agro than it needed to be. You are not wrong, sir. Can I just get a charm roll?

Sure. I'll say the difficulty. He could be very frank with you right now. Difficulty's going to be a 10. Only a six, unless I can burn grit. We're not in combat anymore. However, you know what? Let's leave it to chance.

You are not sitting here alone right now. And because you verbally called out the fact that something a little funky is happening here, I think that would ping for both Excelsiel and Chi to maybe lean in on this too. So I'm going to say both of you can give me, you can give me reason roles. The difficulty will be six. And for every step above that, for every like role of two above that, you can add more than plus one. So if you hit a six, you add a plus one to the roll.

If you can somehow get to like multiples above, you could reasonably get him to a 10. A six adds a plus one? Yes. Got it. A plus one for new with a six on that. How much do we need to get you to a plus 10? I need, you would have to add plus three somehow.

I'd like to quibble. Sweet, you only, yeah, yeah. I don't do better. It's okay. You both contribute, and I think it sets something off in both of your minds. Chi, you remember that you were alerted to any of this, not because of hearing anything specific about a threat to a trint on your rock, but a particularly fierce amount of squabbling happening inside of the gambling rooms,

inside of a fight. Chi, you've been a part of Poles and Coles before, have you not? That's right. So you know that these tend to be quiet and quick affairs. I shouldn't be here. I shouldn't have to know about this, to be honest with you. A hundred percent. Mr. Kerr, I'm here because there was a very marked disturbance over at the synth fights.

it seems that some of your hired hands were a bit heavy, hired handsy with the crowd. Normally this sort of a thing would go off without a fuss. I wouldn't even be any the wiser. And you see Keir's expression hardens, not out of hostility, but realizing that you are beginning to put a bit of a puzzle together out loud. And again, I think you can see in his eyes, why are you sitting here again? Not his call. So he's not directly asking it.

There is still a little bit of status that you walk around with. But you could just tell that he's like, I don't like this and I don't know why you're here helping. And along with that, you did add a plus one, yeah? Yes. Yeah, Excelsial. You added that little bit of intel that like everyone here is a part of this plan. and I think you are beginning to put pieces together. Is there something?

I want you to, as a result of that, like, success, ask me a question, and I'll give you a little bit of insight maybe to help put this together now that you see that, like, a little bit of space, maybe not the most comfortable space, is being made to put together a puzzle of what's happening here.

I would like to know what their next wishes for us are. That's my question to you. Like, I want to know what's their ideal version of how this goes next? Yeah, you can see, huh, the vibe

and understanding that you're getting is everything slowed down out of politeness and deference for Zadavan. But this would best be, like, this is very clearly a side project. And the thing they want next is for this to like,

be moved up and out so they can finish what they came here for. Got it. Does that seem like that will be very bad for Zadavon? Or is this part of it? Is this, all right. Then I'll just look over and I'll look at Zadavin and I'll go, sort of leaning in and be like, I appreciate that I work for you. And I'm going to sort of the little ocular port on my eye.

and goes, and just closes and opens. And I'll go, do you know these? I look over at Keir. I think we're trying to figure that out. And because it's close by a little short, he's not going to completely give the game away. This is not like a sudden, well, I can trust you of what we're actually doing. Yes.

But you are, everyone here in this room, all nine of you at this point, are very aware that this was bigger than this moment. An exciting opportunity presented in a bigger move, sir. And when Miss Jemis was made aware of your presence here on Janipar, she made sure that we were sent over to pull you. Of course, I would never presume to know the negotiations

that are a part of that, but between you and me, it was to get you out of dodge. Well, I can't say that I'm... My feelings aren't a little bit hurt, that I'm not the whole hawk, but... And I think you are clocking as you talk, that his eyes have now drifted over to Chi,

and he is watching you dangerously. Even though his body position is still facing you, Like, he's not going to move away from the power center in the room, but whatever he just said made him very worried about cheese reaction. You're saying Jenipar is not about to be safe space? I think we can all say that Jenipar hasn't been safe space since the schema began being built. Yeah. Well, despite its rough and tumble,

nature. We do have a certain amount of guaranteed autonomy thus far. Are you telling me that that is... Guaranteed by who, ma'am? Well, that is still debatable. And then if it's debatable, I don't think I would call that a guarantee. All due respect. Well, is there something in particular that has tipped it over onto the side of being unsafe? I don't think it's a matter of safe or unsafe. I think it's a matter of being secured or unsecured, ma'am. I see. But why today of all days?

Master Iverix has been here before, and we've taken quite good care of him, yes? Very much so. Do you say, when you've come to visit here before, do you move with all of the weight of your faction? I think it depends. Honestly, it depends on if I'm writing alone or with company. With company, always my whole faction. With sometimes alone, I think it's just been my money. I think on this trip it's been a little bit of a little bit more me alone with.

I think this has been a somewhat longer stay than some of my other trips to Jenipar. So I think that I think in the past it's been sometimes, sometimes not. This time it has been. Well, this was more. more of an extended stay than the young master here is accustomed to, and word got to us this time. And again, it wasn't... Is this an intervention?

This isn't about him, but because he was here, we were sent to make sure he gets out before what happens, happens. And with that, you hear just a... Like, the very, like, at the edge of your hearing dog-level... sound of something coming through on all of their earpieces. Speaking of which, we should be moving soon. Saddam is going to look to Chi with a kind of, uh,

Miss Tank, I'm, I don't know what is to come for Janapar, but I wish you all the best. Oh, thank you. That's very kind of you. can I try to read body language and hear, listen into the... You know what?

I'm going to look at the at Excelsial and I say well it seems that Master of Eorex is out of the loop here. Do you happen to know

what his next moves should be? I'm going to look over and lean in Who's Keir staring at right? As Keir looking at us or is Keir distracted by his earpiece? Keir, all you saw was Keir look away for a second before he re-locks in on Chi so specifically.

Gotcha. I'm going to say, I'll look at you and say, hmm, one moment, please. And I'm going to lean in real close to Zadhafen and go, okay, I know that I don't really work for you. What's your actual job? I'm a partner at Avericks Enterprise. You're really part of the Avericks family.

I'm sorry? Oh, I thought you were making that up. What? What? Why? I don't know. It's just rare. Well, you're in the presence of a rare person. Okay, congratulations.

Thank you. I'll look up here and go, Master Kier, you're preparing to move Lord Averix. Is that correct? I think it's wise for all. three of you to come with us at this point. But yes. Understood. We are on our way to consult with Isolt. Gemmiss, is that our understanding? Yes. Ah, very well. I'll look over at you. Are you panicking about that? I am, I, my heart has fallen out of my asshole. I am, this is

Everything that I have worked for and is crumbling around me. And I am very well trained for crises. But this is too much. This is beyond the pale. I look at this robot. I'm going to lean in and say, I defer to you to measure your odds of success in a conversation with Lady Jemis. or we can cheese it.

I'm going to, within your implant com, I'm just going to say, I would rate our odds of success in a conversation with Lady Jemis as higher than popping off in this moment. However, I can hit this guy with a laser beam. You are so sweet. I say through my cons,

you are so kind. No, cheesing it is not really in my wheelhouse, you see, we would do well to take the diplomatic route. I do need to send some messages. And I turn back to here and say, do I have your leave to contact some of my associates and also let them know to get out of the proverbial dodge? I'll do respect, ma'am.

I'm going to need you to come with me. Please do not activate any of your comms. Very specifically, whatever happened with Excel ZL accessing it, whatever means they have to pick up on comms, that went under the radar. But the implication here is that like that sort of interceptor technology, especially for like short range, non-encrypted things, which would be your easy sort of walkie-talkie across Jenipar, would be easily intercepted. The three of you. With me? Thank you for making this pull relatively easy. And as Keir stands, he's going to put a hand to his own ear and sends out a message.

If secure the payload, air it out. That was Erica Ishii as Cheyanka, Brennan Lee Mulligan as Excelsia, Lou Wilson as Zadavinavinavericks, and Abria Aingar as everyone and everything else. Solari is produced by Worlds Beyond Number, Editing sound design by Big Giant Head Productions, and scored by Will Savino. For even more stories like this, join us on our Patreon.

We'll see you by the fireside.