Episode 16
Episode 16: Codes and Keys
The ol' Book and Ocean crew meet back up to kick off the heist of the century, to try to get to the bottom of a bootleg episode of Evangelion. Also, a very touching, shared, mind-opening experience.
This one is mostly sneaking and hacking mainframes. We Shadowrun now bois.
Transcript
Welcome to Oops!
Speaker:All Apocalypses, a show where we explore the collapse of society by playing fun, tabletop, role-playing games.
Speaker:I'm Stu Masterson, and I'm joined by two people.
Speaker:That's it?
Speaker:I had to think for a while on that one.
Speaker:I know you said you come up with them off the top of your head, but people?
Speaker:Hi, everybody.
Speaker:I am People.
Speaker:I play Book McCready, a rude and nitpicky sleuth who is obsessed with mysteries and solving them, boys.
Speaker:And I'm Jacob, and I'm playing Ocean, a gentle giant who is skilled in the art of subterfuge.
Speaker:Ooh, sneaky boy.
Speaker:Yeah, clearly.
Speaker:He's so sneaky, he rips deadbolts out of his hands, out of the wall.
Speaker:So I'm excited for where we're going, but I think I'm going to instill a new rule, since we've had a lot of episodes with just talking, where there's gonna be one gunshot each episode.
Speaker:How do you feel about that?
Speaker:Should really ramp up that energy.
Speaker:Just out of nowhere, just fires.
Speaker:I think Vesuvius, like the stuff with...
Speaker:Well, I mean, I know that's evident from how I'm playing this game.
Speaker:I don't know if the listeners agree, but like the stuff with Vesuvius has been tense enough for me, just as like an intrigue, from an intrigue point of view, without gunshots.
Speaker:But you can, although I say that, I think it was really funny when I said that I just shot him in the broken leg, and I was like, I shoot my gun.
Speaker:Yeah, I thought you were serious because you said, I'm serious afterwards.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That was really fun for us.
Speaker:Well, yeah, because if I didn't say I'm serious, you guys would have just kept laughing.
Speaker:I don't think I need to instill the one gunshot role yet, because we have that good morning energy.
Speaker:We're recording this early.
Speaker:Yeah, this is the earliest.
Speaker:Before noon.
Speaker:I'm not a morning person.
Speaker:I've not been drained of all my life force yet by a normal day's work, or it being a Saturday.
Speaker:Because Saturdays are like vacation, basically.
Speaker:Oh yeah, you know, you're wearing pajamas.
Speaker:Got my Jimmy Buffett attire.
Speaker:Certainly not like today, a work day where I'm not wearing pajamas right now and undershirt.
Speaker:Yeah, I definitely have changed out of what I wore to sleep last night.
Speaker:This is more embarrassing because it's not that much before noon.
Speaker:I was about to say it's 11 o'clock right now.
Speaker:It's 11.57 for me.
Speaker:It is noon for me because of the time zone I am in.
Speaker:As for Brady, it's not even before noon, and for us, it's like an hour before noon, so it's barely impressive in the slightest.
Speaker:Listen, folks, we never claim to be peak contributors to humanity, except for Jacob, who has life-saving work.
Speaker:Sometimes.
Speaker:It's a lot of giving people sandwiches.
Speaker:That's it.
Speaker:That's it, dude.
Speaker:That's the dream.
Speaker:You should just tell people you're a sandwich artist.
Speaker:And it's a lot of giving people sandwiches, and then being yelled at when we're said, we can't give you a sandwich, you're having a heart attack.
Speaker:I'm sure this is a Denny's.
Speaker:Yeah, that sure do think it is, it seems.
Speaker:We have reached in our questions to Fall in Love, they are arbitrarily broken up into different sets, three sets.
Speaker:And we've reached set two, but I don't know what that means.
Speaker:It means that we are-
Speaker:It's more passion.
Speaker:So set one is you have a crush.
Speaker:Set two is you likey like someone.
Speaker:Set three is you're falling in love.
Speaker:And then set four is you've been married for 45 years and hate each other.
Speaker:Well, I'm glad set four is so negative because there is no set four.
Speaker:Only three sets.
Speaker:We're on set two as of right now.
Speaker:So we are one third of the way done.
Speaker:Oh shit.
Speaker:Which means we're one third of the way done with this podcast.
Speaker:Is that what we're doing?
Speaker:We're setting a timeline where the moment we answer the last question, it's gonna have to be the last episode.
Speaker:You know what that actually means?
Speaker:It means that this has to be the end of our session because we've been doing this session for like the last 10 episodes.
Speaker:Yeah, I'm not gonna defend myself because you definitely forced me to end the previous session at a time that I did not agree with.
Speaker:What did I do?
Speaker:It may have not been on air, but you really wanted to do the session to end and do those end of session moves during that one episode.
Speaker:The last time.
Speaker:You mean...
Speaker:It's crazy to think we've been...
Speaker:We've only done the end of session moves twice, I think, at this point.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So Stu, what would have been...
Speaker:So let me ask you this.
Speaker:If we haven't done the end of session moves since then, what would have been a better time to do it?
Speaker:Because of all of the events that have happened since then...
Speaker:Well, when you guys got back, probably would have been a perfect...
Speaker:That was when we got back.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:Oh, that was right before we left.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:No, that makes sense, because that was in between two quests.
Speaker:We also shouldn't legate this at this point, because it changed all of history.
Speaker:If that wasn't the end of session, it would have been different.
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:From my perspective, it would have, because I would have framed things in kind of a different way.
Speaker:You would have got back quicker, probably.
Speaker:Less bumbling around in Subtropolis.
Speaker:I disagree with that.
Speaker:It's not a problem.
Speaker:Now it's been ten episodes, so I don't think that your defense stands.
Speaker:It has not been ten episodes.
Speaker:It hasn't.
Speaker:It's been like five, but still, it's a lot.
Speaker:Well, we'll do end of session very soon.
Speaker:Next couple episodes, probably.
Speaker:I want to unlock more mysteries.
Speaker:Get that extra experience.
Speaker:But coming back to set two of Questions to Fall in Love.
Speaker:13th of 30, two questions.
Speaker:And don't worry, we're not going to end the podcast when we're done with these questions.
Speaker:We're never ending the podcast.
Speaker:Never ending it.
Speaker:We may end this arc or change it completely.
Speaker:We'll never end the podcast, but y'all need to get more people to listen.
Speaker:That's on you, not on us for not having a Twitter.
Speaker:I was about to say, real shit, we should have a social media presence.
Speaker:Give me one social media that's not run by racists or homophobes or those are people.
Speaker:There actually is none at this point, I don't think.
Speaker:They're all horrible.
Speaker:Even Reddit's going down the shitter, even though it's kind of always been a shitter.
Speaker:We just have a Snapchat.
Speaker:We have an OnlyFans in the Snapchat.
Speaker:I would make an OnlyFans for this podcast.
Speaker:Call to action here.
Speaker:Listeners, email us with how you heard of this podcast if it wasn't directly from one of the three people here, because we have a good amount of listeners who didn't, and it would really help us figure out how you heard from us and where we should put more effort into.
Speaker:Yeah, I'm looking at our international friends.
Speaker:So, our set two questions to fall in love.
Speaker:We're finally getting back to it.
Speaker:This is a pretty good one.
Speaker:If a crystal ball can tell you the truth about yourself or life or the future or anything else, what would you want to know?
Speaker:It has to be a crystal ball.
Speaker:Pass, hard pass.
Speaker:Don't care.
Speaker:That seems false.
Speaker:No, because Book wants to figure it all out for himself.
Speaker:Ocean would be easy.
Speaker:Yeah, Ocean would want to know his past.
Speaker:Let's know where he's from, what's going on.
Speaker:Would you grab that crystal ball and be like, give me a quick run through the first 30 years of my life?
Speaker:Yeah, I think he would actually be...
Speaker:Because Ocean, I don't think he cares to...
Speaker:Give me the highlight rule.
Speaker:I don't think Ocean would really want to know his future, because I've thought about this personally, and I don't want to know what my future is.
Speaker:Like, I would not want a crystal ball to read my future.
Speaker:Yeah, I get that.
Speaker:I think running through your past would be a lot more valuable for Ocean, but Book, you wouldn't even be like, hey, where are my parents right now?
Speaker:No, he probably would.
Speaker:He would probably not want to.
Speaker:He could ask for a hint.
Speaker:Like, he wouldn't want to resort to that.
Speaker:Like, he would feel like he was cheating, but he would, because it's more important for him to find his parents than it is to do it himself.
Speaker:Finding his parents quickly and alive.
Speaker:So yeah, so he would be like, I'm cheating, but yeah, where are my parents, please?
Speaker:One parent, please.
Speaker:He can at least ask for a hint, be like, tell me which direction my parents went.
Speaker:Give me a map.
Speaker:A cryptic map.
Speaker:Roll around on this piece of paper and imprint a map.
Speaker:I think I'm with Team Jacob here.
Speaker:I can't believe I only made that joke right now.
Speaker:I used to own a shirt that said Team Jacob from Twilight.
Speaker:Purely because I thought it was hilarious.
Speaker:Team person who imprints on a literal fetus.
Speaker:As a baby, not a fetus.
Speaker:I never actually watched Twilight or read it, but I thought it was very funny that my name was Jacob, and I had a Team Jacob shirt.
Speaker:If I had a crystal ball that could show me anything, I would also look to the past, and I would go into the production studio for the TingTings as they're making their hit song, That's Not My Name, and find why they have that stupid half beat pause at the end of their chorus.
Speaker:Now let's get back to the action.
Speaker:Book, you are in Hickory Fleek's cool judge's chamber.
Speaker:You have just came to an agreement that he will send a couple men down into Subchopolis with you in exchange for you helping him with something your mom started.
Speaker:You don't know exactly what that is, but you agreed wholeheartedly.
Speaker:There's kind of a side agreement that you will also denounce your previous revolution, and he will then tell you everything he knows about both of your parents.
Speaker:Hickory is going to finally holster his gun, walk past you and lead you towards the door to his chamber and open it up wide and turn to you and say, so I guess I'll be seeing you at the town hall meeting tomorrow?
Speaker:Hell yeah.
Speaker:I don't say that.
Speaker:I was just supposed to say, hold on.
Speaker:No, I look him square in the eye and I say, I'll see you there.
Speaker:I'm not going to apologize for this, but I think you get it.
Speaker:And he's going to push you downstairs.
Speaker:Really?
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Roll for roll for roll for roll.
Speaker:He doesn't roll.
Speaker:He just does.
Speaker:Well, my cane, my cane takes one of the damage, whatever much damage.
Speaker:Give me a act under fire.
Speaker:No, I'm taking its armor.
Speaker:Its armor, it just happens.
Speaker:Are you sure you don't want to act under fire?
Speaker:Fine, I'll act under fire.
Speaker:You don't have to.
Speaker:No, I'm acting under fire.
Speaker:I'm acting.
Speaker:I'm acting.
Speaker:That's a nine.
Speaker:Nine times.
Speaker:That's a fair excuse.
Speaker:You tumble down the stairs, but you do brace yourself with your cane, so you don't take like a super embarrassing fall.
Speaker:You just kind of skid along the bottom.
Speaker:More like a big stumble.
Speaker:How many stairs did I go down?
Speaker:It's like three.
Speaker:So he just kind of like kicked you out of his office basically.
Speaker:Oh, so these were the stairs that I had to carry the wipe off board, the chalkboard up to get into his office.
Speaker:Yeah, the one you didn't use and then you rudely left in his office.
Speaker:Someone's going to have to move that later, you know.
Speaker:Probably low level employee.
Speaker:You do take no damage because of your cane would have been one, gonna be zero.
Speaker:And as you stand up, you see a mostly empty courtroom.
Speaker:There are some people just kind of hanging out, chatting a little bit.
Speaker:And you look and the one person you do recognize is Pistachio Jones, who is chuckling quietly to himself.
Speaker:You can see him just kind of vibrating up and down.
Speaker:The chuckles can't quite escape from his jowls.
Speaker:Nice.
Speaker:So I kind of stumbled on my feet.
Speaker:I should say stagger to my feet, brush myself off, roll my eyes.
Speaker:The door slams behind you.
Speaker:So I look at Pistachio and I go, Hey, Pistachio.
Speaker:Then I go to walk out.
Speaker:Oh, wait.
Speaker:And then I noticed that ocean isn't there.
Speaker:And I go, do you know where Ocean went?
Speaker:Yeah, he went off with Vesuvius.
Speaker:He said to meet him at the regular spot.
Speaker:Nice.
Speaker:Thanks.
Speaker:And I toss him a Pistachio.
Speaker:He catches in his mouth.
Speaker:Nice.
Speaker:Oh, my God.
Speaker:He's going to be laughing at my little pet bird.
Speaker:So I'm like, great, thanks.
Speaker:And then I got to go start to walk out the door.
Speaker:And I'm like, wait, we have a regular spot.
Speaker:Meanwhile, or possibly slightly in the past, we'll figure that out soon.
Speaker:Ocean has opened his mind to the psychic maelstrom.
Speaker:Indeed, I have.
Speaker:Give me that.
Speaker:Open your mind to a psychic maelstrom roll.
Speaker:That is a nine.
Speaker:Oh, nice.
Speaker:That means you are along for the ride.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So I think Ocean's going to kind of he's going to close his eyes and he's going to just he's going to remember the way he feels whenever he has one of his visions where like a bunch of new sensations and stuff washing over him where he tries to close his eyes and just kind of like imagine being more aware of everything that's going on and trying to like focus more on everything that's happening just by like listening.
Speaker:And he is going to try his absolute best while doing that to focus his mind on Vesuvius and where he's at and the room that he's in and everything.
Speaker:And he is going to open his eyes and...
Speaker:You feel while your eyes are closed, you feel this almost electric tingle around you.
Speaker:You feel like all your hairs are starting to like stand up a little bit.
Speaker:Little tingly linglies everywhere.
Speaker:And then as you open your eyes, everything's a little different.
Speaker:You see it kind of more shadowy, and a lot of the ancillary features around the area are just kind of darkened out.
Speaker:But you do see Vesuvius.
Speaker:You see him, and as you stare at him, his eyes are emitting this just bright, white light, just like beaming out towards you.
Speaker:And he is awkwardly just like standing perfectly straight with his mouth slightly open, and then it opens wider, and this same light shoots out just bathing light against you, and you kind of wince away.
Speaker:As you look to the side, you see the building that you were fucking around with earlier, with the servers and the terminal.
Speaker:You see a strange sight outside of that.
Speaker:You notice this energy pooling around those same cables that drew your attention there originally, and it looks kind of similar to what you saw connecting all the yellow Hummer people whose names we still need to come up with, at least a shorthand.
Speaker:It looks similar to that, but it's...
Speaker:And they were connected to the tower, right?
Speaker:Yeah, they were connected to the tower.
Speaker:You see near that building on the horizon, heading in your direction, that same energy, that same information you saw flowing into all the yellow Hummer people.
Speaker:And for convenience, this energy is going to be colored yellow.
Speaker:And you can see it kind of moving in a wave, like a coiled wave, traveling from the distance up directly towards where you're at all along that power cable.
Speaker:And you notice suddenly there's this explosion of green energy that's very similar, that forms into this large humanoid shape on the other side of the building and takes like a defensive posture, like a fucking lineman waiting to block.
Speaker:And you then witness this Evangelion-esque battle where these two titanic forces are just smashing into each other, punching, flipping, trying to tackle each other.
Speaker:And then you just snap out of it.
Speaker:Vesuvius is right next to you now, and he's like shaking your shoulders.
Speaker:Hey, what's going on?
Speaker:Hey, I have a question.
Speaker:Hey, I have a question.
Speaker:Is your question what the fuck?
Speaker:Yeah, kind of.
Speaker:Just so that my visualization is accurate, the green energy dude that showed up, that fought the yellow energy, was the yellow energy coming from the tower or from the cables?
Speaker:It was coming along the cables from the horizon.
Speaker:There wasn't any specific tower or anything.
Speaker:It's just shadowy out there.
Speaker:And did it seem like it was triggered by Ocean opening his mind?
Speaker:He just saw all of that happen just then, and then it went away.
Speaker:I will not elaborate.
Speaker:I got to look at that code, bro.
Speaker:I know that's what I got to go.
Speaker:I got to get a fucking book over here.
Speaker:I also want to know, did the lights like flicker while this was happening?
Speaker:Good question.
Speaker:Let's jump inside to where you are at.
Speaker:You're still inside of the courthouse.
Speaker:You haven't quite left yet, and the lights kind of flicker for just a millisecond.
Speaker:Like you may not even notice it, may think it's just something weird happening, but then you do hear all of the doors in the entire building unlock, just clunking, clunking one at a time.
Speaker:And this causes kind of a slow panic, and eventually people start running out towards the back.
Speaker:This is me forcing you guys together.
Speaker:I did have one more question about the stuff that I saw.
Speaker:Was there, I saw like the light shooting out of Vesuvius' mouth and eyes any time he was like moving.
Speaker:And he said he was like standing like completely like rigid.
Speaker:Did the light look anything like those creatures that I saw in my vision?
Speaker:Do you know those things that like had the big spotlight eyes?
Speaker:Yeah, a little bit.
Speaker:In the same sense that it's like light coming out of somebody's eyes.
Speaker:Eyes and mouth area, yeah.
Speaker:I think those ones had like glowing red eyes and then white lantern mouth.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Was there anything that was coming off of him?
Speaker:You said there was like the yellow energy coming out from the servers and stuff.
Speaker:Was there any energy coming off of Vesuvius that we noticed?
Speaker:His light was roughly shining in that same direction, but you winced away and then noticed all that other stuff.
Speaker:Gotcha.
Speaker:So it kind of pointed you in that direction when you turned away, but you don't know exactly what it's doing.
Speaker:Oh, shit.
Speaker:So there's something going on with that server.
Speaker:Vesuvius is hacking the mainframe, bro.
Speaker:Or Vesuvius is controlled by the mainframe.
Speaker:But he had yellow energy, right, Vesuvius?
Speaker:No, his was just a bunch of white light.
Speaker:So, Book, you're still inside.
Speaker:You hear all those doors kind of open, open up, and you see a lot of people confused, and a few of them slowly start jogging towards that backyard.
Speaker:No, I'm going to follow them, obviously.
Speaker:I'm going to try to, like, disguise.
Speaker:I'm going to...
Speaker:So what is everyone dressed like?
Speaker:Is everyone kind of dressed similarly?
Speaker:No, there's no uniform.
Speaker:They all sorts of different shit.
Speaker:Okay, then I'm going to, like, pop the collar up on my jacket and kind of hunch down and try to, like, look like I'm supposed to be there, basically.
Speaker:Like, run with a purpose in that direction.
Speaker:That's a six.
Speaker:So I failed that.
Speaker:Okay, Ocean, you are getting shook and awake by Vesuvius.
Speaker:He goes, Oh, hey, what happened there?
Speaker:I...
Speaker:I don't...
Speaker:I don't really know.
Speaker:How long was I out?
Speaker:About 30 seconds, you were just kind of standing there all limp with a vacant look in your face.
Speaker:You should probably have a seat.
Speaker:Yeah, I think that'd be for the best.
Speaker:There's a bench out front of the barracks, and he actually, like, shoes people off of it.
Speaker:And he's like, move, move, move.
Speaker:And he lets you sit down there.
Speaker:About that time, book, you make it to the back courtyard.
Speaker:Okay, but I'm not well disguised.
Speaker:I guess I will just go and say it since you're impatient, but Pistachio noticed you come out.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:I don't know if you know that quite yet, but...
Speaker:Oh, great.
Speaker:Do I see Ocean?
Speaker:Yes, you see Ocean sitting down with Vesuvius next to him, who seems to be kind of taking care of him.
Speaker:I run up, Ocean, everything okay?
Speaker:What's going on?
Speaker:And I'm concerned because I see Vesuvius like standing over him, and I'm like, what are you doing to my friend?
Speaker:I'm all right.
Speaker:I'm all right.
Speaker:Yeah, he had a little episode for a minute there, where he seems to have kind of left his mind for a little bit, but he's back.
Speaker:I kind of squint at Ocean, like, and basically I'm trying to get like a nod or something.
Speaker:Like, did Vesuvius hurt you?
Speaker:But I'm not saying that.
Speaker:No, Ocean's gonna, when you start squinting at him, Ocean's gonna shake his head.
Speaker:He's like, no, it's just those visions I've been having.
Speaker:This one's a little different, though.
Speaker:But, Book, now that you're here, there's...
Speaker:Gotcha.
Speaker:How'd your meeting with Higriko?
Speaker:It went OK.
Speaker:I mean, I mean, it went good, so I got us some guys.
Speaker:They're gonna protect us.
Speaker:And he's gonna talk, tell us about my parents and what's going on there.
Speaker:I had to promise to do some stuff, though, so I'm gonna help him.
Speaker:I don't know what they were working on, but he said that he had been working on something with my mom, something that was gonna help the town.
Speaker:So I told him I would try to help him finish that.
Speaker:And then I may have also told him that I was going to speak at the town hall meeting tomorrow and tell everyone that Hickory's a good guy, basically.
Speaker:And that Ocean's gonna stand up and be like, you what?
Speaker:Well, listen, man, it's a compromise, but let's let this play out.
Speaker:And then I kind of see you're gonna contradict everything that we said, everything that we've been standing for, everything that we've been trying to do here.
Speaker:Listen, if it's what it takes for us to figure this out, I think it's worth it.
Speaker:Also, I don't know that anyone's really gonna care.
Speaker:Like, I'm not some figure that people fucking look up to in this town anyway.
Speaker:So it just doesn't feel right to me after what happens.
Speaker:We got people that came to us and express their thoughts about what was going on, and we're just taking it all back.
Speaker:Just doesn't sit right with me.
Speaker:I'm gonna say, well, I'm just trying to right some wrongs, and I like kind of look at Ocean Shovel, you know.
Speaker:I should just kind of shake his head.
Speaker:It's like, I trust your judgment book.
Speaker:It just feels feels disingenuous.
Speaker:Well, I think things went too far last time.
Speaker:So I'm just trying to I'm just trying to figure things out.
Speaker:Well, I trust you.
Speaker:Speaking of trusting you, there's something I think you should check out.
Speaker:So is there like still pandemonium going on around us?
Speaker:It's mild pandemonium, like a red pandemonium.
Speaker:People are mostly confused.
Speaker:It's not like a giant, oh shit, stuff's going down.
Speaker:People are trying to track down what caused this to happen.
Speaker:Right about then, you feel a big pistachio sized hand grab onto your shoulder.
Speaker:Did you have something to do with this?
Speaker:What are you two doing back here?
Speaker:No, you were with you saw me.
Speaker:I was with Hickory that whole time.
Speaker:I didn't do anything.
Speaker:I'm in Ocean.
Speaker:You could have been back there.
Speaker:I wasn't doing anything.
Speaker:Well, he comes here and...
Speaker:No, no, no.
Speaker:Pistachio, I was just staying in here.
Speaker:You can ask Vesuvius.
Speaker:I was talking to him, and then I just zoned out, and things started happening.
Speaker:Yeah, he was not doing anything.
Speaker:Toad, I assure you, he was just...
Speaker:I was showing him my pad and what I got set up.
Speaker:It seems awful suspicious.
Speaker:What do you think I could have done, Pistachio?
Speaker:It's not like I have psychic powers.
Speaker:I don't know, put like a fork in an outlet or something.
Speaker:Listen, Pistachio, I don't think he'd be standing here if he did that, but maybe we can help figure out what's going on.
Speaker:Well, I'm going to be keeping a close eye on you two.
Speaker:And he squints, but you can't really tell he's squinting.
Speaker:Is Ocean coming with us?
Speaker:Or not Ocean?
Speaker:Is Vesuvius coming with us?
Speaker:I try to whisper at Ocean.
Speaker:No, I think he has work.
Speaker:Vesuvius is great seeing you again.
Speaker:Sorry about the stuff, and bye.
Speaker:Yeah, no problem.
Speaker:I had a very productive talk with him.
Speaker:That's you walking away.
Speaker:I'll wave at him as we're walking.
Speaker:Boom, Starwipe, you're back at Ocean's place.
Speaker:Somehow, there's a sound of tinging and machines vibrating and cutting tools, even though no one's doing anything right now.
Speaker:All right, so the moment we get far enough away, and we're in a spot where I'm pretty confident that nobody is listening in, I'm going to tell him everything that I saw in the vision.
Speaker:I'm going to tell him about the terminal.
Speaker:I'm going to tell him about that room.
Speaker:I'm just going to lay out the whole story of everything that we've recorded now so that Brady can have his inputs on it in character.
Speaker:And books are going to go, Zine Machine, my mother?
Speaker:Gasp!
Speaker:Your mom?
Speaker:Yeah, that's insane.
Speaker:How do you know it's your mom?
Speaker:So my mom's name was Margaret, but wait, she went by Mags.
Speaker:And it was a little joke between my parents, you know, like magazine McReady.
Speaker:So I'm pretty sure Zine Machine is my mom.
Speaker:I don't know who Randy Candy is.
Speaker:I don't know what the fuck a Randy Candy is.
Speaker:And then I'm like, wait, Randy Candy?
Speaker:Is that?
Speaker:Could that be Crandall?
Speaker:Why would your mom be in contact with Crandall, though?
Speaker:I don't know, but I feel like we should focus on the giant green energy monster that you saw.
Speaker:Yeah, I don't know what the fuck that was.
Speaker:I'm gonna propose something dumb.
Speaker:Do you want to stand on your porch and go into the psychic maelstrom and see if it's still there?
Speaker:Sure, why not?
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:And I sit in Ocean's, one of Ocean's rocking chairs on his porch.
Speaker:And I think to myself, I'm pretty sure Vesuvius is that stupid cheese monster thing.
Speaker:So Ocean will step outside and he'll come from his front door.
Speaker:I don't suspect he has a porch because I don't feel like it's that fancy of a little house.
Speaker:But it's just it can just be a porch can be dirt or a patio.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And he's going to stare out over Hamlet opening, just like to try and get as much of the town in his sights as he can.
Speaker:And he's going to close his eyes and he's going to do the same thing.
Speaker:He's just going to let sensation wash over him, focusing and pinpointing on super fine details, trying to focus on everything that's happening.
Speaker:And he's going to focus intently on the things he saw.
Speaker:Oh, shit, that is a 12.
Speaker:I was about to remind you how dangerous it is to open your mind to the psychic maelstrom, but you're good.
Speaker:Don't care.
Speaker:That's the best I think I've ever rolled.
Speaker:I'm going to open my mind as well.
Speaker:Oh, my God.
Speaker:I said that was the whole plan, that we were both going to open our minds.
Speaker:We're both?
Speaker:I said, do you want to open our minds and see if it's still there?
Speaker:That's what I was saying.
Speaker:So Book starts thinking about Vesuvius, and he's like, I think I'm right.
Speaker:I think I'm right.
Speaker:I think I'm right.
Speaker:And then he opens his mind to the Psychic Maelstrom.
Speaker:And that is an...
Speaker:Wait, no, I'm rolling plus weird.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:I have plus two weird now.
Speaker:Fuck yeah.
Speaker:Yeah, so that's an 11.
Speaker:God, we rolled so good.
Speaker:Two full successes.
Speaker:I look at Ocean in the Psychic Maelstrom, and I nod.
Speaker:I go, what's up, bub?
Speaker:Shit, I don't remember what you do when you have a full success on a Psychic Maelstrom.
Speaker:I don't think we've ever done that before.
Speaker:When you open your brain to the world's Psychic Maelstrom, roll plus weird.
Speaker:On any hit, the world's Psychic Maelstrom fills your perception.
Speaker:Ask the MC what you see and feel.
Speaker:And if the MC has any questions for you, answer them.
Speaker:On 10-plus hit, you can try to control it and or interrogate it, but on a 7-9, you're just along for the ride.
Speaker:You can try.
Speaker:On a miss, be prepared for the worst.
Speaker:Both of you, look over and lock eyes.
Speaker:You see each other within the Psychic Maelstrom at the same time.
Speaker:No, you look roughly normal.
Speaker:Fuck yes.
Speaker:You don't see that normal giant eye of Sauron that you normally see right now, book.
Speaker:What's happening right now is you are more in Ocean's experience of the Psychic Maelstrom.
Speaker:Interesting.
Speaker:So it's very different.
Speaker:I've tapped into his energies, brainwaves.
Speaker:Yes, this is very different than when you've done it before, so it's a little bit jarring.
Speaker:This is actually a little more calm than yours.
Speaker:You feel like it's almost a shadow realm of where you were before.
Speaker:Like you still see Ocean's shack.
Speaker:I mean, Ocean's very nice home.
Speaker:You're still sitting on that makeshift chair that you were relaxing on, and you look to the distance of Hamlet opening over the courthouse, and you do not see any strange, weird, giant energy monsters fighting each other right now.
Speaker:It's actually eerily calm over there, but what catches both of your attention is in Ocean's massive scrap heap of random shit.
Speaker:There are a few areas that seem to be kind of pulsating and causing these waves kind of like heat on asphalt distorting the reality above them.
Speaker:Ocean wants to, he's going to walk over to one of these patches that he sees things being distorted and he's going to kind of like dig through it and see if there's an object in it that's causing that disturbance or if it just seems to be that area.
Speaker:As you start digging through some of your scrap, it seems to be getting, you actually feel heat, and it gets hotter and hotter as you get closer and closer to the source of this.
Speaker:As you dig and dig, you end up finding this object that's almost vibrating and you see it as this very large radiator.
Speaker:It has this large cooling fan on it and some place where water would normally flow through or cool it.
Speaker:But it's all kind of fucked up on the edges.
Speaker:And for some reason, it's just vibrating.
Speaker:Is it free or is it stuck in the ground?
Speaker:Like we just uncovered something that's fixed?
Speaker:It's something that he collected previously on one of his expeditions.
Speaker:I'm sure it's...
Speaker:No one seemed to want it back then.
Speaker:Okay, I go over to one of the other mounds and I try to find what's glowing.
Speaker:As you dig through some shit, give me a read-a-sitch roll.
Speaker:That is a nine.
Speaker:Ask me one question.
Speaker:Oh, who's in control here would be interesting.
Speaker:But I think what should I be on the lookout for is really what I want to know.
Speaker:You start digging through these things, and it seems hard for you to track down where it's vibrating, this giant pile of junk, and some of it is just like rusty sharp edges.
Speaker:And as you grab it, you have to be extra careful as you're trying to move things out of the way.
Speaker:And as you reach down, you actually feel something cut you a little bit along your forearm.
Speaker:Not enough to deal damage, but it hurts more than you would expect.
Speaker:Like this little tiny cut just radiates.
Speaker:Like when you step on something sharp, like you keep digging, and you find at the bottom, it's just like very barely exposed.
Speaker:The part you can see maybe looks like a coil of cables or something.
Speaker:And as you go to reach for it and grab it, your hands just pass through it.
Speaker:And right when it passes through it, you hear the same howl that you've heard a few times now, where it just cuts off.
Speaker:And both of you snap out of it.
Speaker:Wait, are you sure?
Speaker:I thought we get to try to control it.
Speaker:I think the fact that we're, I was about to say, I think us being able to dig and find stuff was us controlling it the best we can.
Speaker:Okay, so I look at my hands.
Speaker:Are my hands, are my hands?
Speaker:They are corporeal.
Speaker:They're fine.
Speaker:You do have that cut on you.
Speaker:It does not look bad.
Speaker:It looks kind of like a cat scratch, but it does hurt pretty bad.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Is, um, but the coil of wires that I was pulling on, is it there?
Speaker:Like, do I see it?
Speaker:You start digging through the pile, and you cannot find it.
Speaker:Is the radiator that Ocean's holding still there?
Speaker:Yeah, you're actually still holding it.
Speaker:You snapped out while you were holding it.
Speaker:And when I say radiator, I don't mean one for, like, heating up a room.
Speaker:I mean one for cooling something down, like a...
Speaker:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker:That's what I kind of figured.
Speaker:Like a big old kind of coil kind of looking thing.
Speaker:Yeah, like a heat sink on a CPU, but massive.
Speaker:I turned to Ocean, and I'm like holding my hands up, and I'm like, I...
Speaker:Something just happened.
Speaker:My hands, I...
Speaker:In the psychic maelstrom, I don't know if the thing I was looking at wasn't there, or if my hands...
Speaker:I couldn't pick it up.
Speaker:Do you have some Neosporn?
Speaker:I'm sure he has something.
Speaker:Considering all of the going out and saying, I got some rubbing alcohol that we can pour on there.
Speaker:I want to investigate my cut and see if it seems like a normal cut or maybe something else, like something weird.
Speaker:It looks like a normal cut, but it feels worse than it looks.
Speaker:Do I...
Speaker:What part of my hand is it on?
Speaker:Or what part of...
Speaker:Forearm.
Speaker:Oh, so I turned to Ocean.
Speaker:I got a cut while we were in there.
Speaker:I'm nervous.
Speaker:What cut?
Speaker:It was just something in one of your piles, your scrap.
Speaker:I don't want to call it scrap.
Speaker:I know you worked really hard to get that stuff.
Speaker:It means something to me.
Speaker:Yeah, put it in one of your treasure piles.
Speaker:And I don't know what cut me, but I don't want to turn into Vesuvius.
Speaker:I don't want to turn into a Vesuvius.
Speaker:I don't.
Speaker:I'm nervous.
Speaker:I'm scared.
Speaker:I don't.
Speaker:Should I try to cauterize it?
Speaker:Like, I don't.
Speaker:I want to.
Speaker:Let's just kind of focus on you got yourself cut.
Speaker:It doesn't look too bad.
Speaker:We should kind of look around.
Speaker:Let's go put some alcohol on it.
Speaker:Get it disinfected and we'll just watch it.
Speaker:I don't think nothing here is.
Speaker:There's all kinds of scrap and cables and wires and cords and rusted metal that could cut you.
Speaker:So I wouldn't get too concerned just yet.
Speaker:Ocean, you look at your arm and you have like way more cuts that look worse than the one that is on Booker.
Speaker:I'm sure he's probably like covered and just like scrap.
Speaker:But do they are they from getting inside the psychic maelstrom?
Speaker:To be honest with you, Book, I've only been in the psychic maelstrom three times now.
Speaker:So I was asking us to like, did Ocean also get cut up while he was in the psychic maelstrom?
Speaker:Or are these just cuts on his arms?
Speaker:No, these are just normal rumble tumbles.
Speaker:I figured they were cuts just on his arms.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:And I also look at his arms and like, look, I know it doesn't seem like a big deal, but it hurts a lot.
Speaker:Well, we'll just watch it here.
Speaker:But what if that's too late?
Speaker:Like, what if I need to cut my arm off?
Speaker:I think we're jumping to conclusions, Book.
Speaker:I promise we'll just keep an eye on.
Speaker:The moment I get suspicious that something's off, I'll cut your arm off for you if it makes you feel better.
Speaker:Yeah, but then it might be too late.
Speaker:You might have to cut my head off.
Speaker:We don't know how this shit works.
Speaker:I want to read myself and see if I feel anything weird going on.
Speaker:It feels like it hurts more than it looks.
Speaker:Yeah, you said that already.
Speaker:Yeah, that's what you get.
Speaker:You're not a doctor.
Speaker:No, but I mean, like, do I feel anything?
Speaker:No.
Speaker:Well, Juniper seems to have some kind of medical training.
Speaker:You want to go talk to him?
Speaker:If anything, we'd want to talk to that guy, Maple.
Speaker:But I don't think Maple knows what the fuck he's talking about when it comes to the psychic maelstrom.
Speaker:Sorry, I'm just...
Speaker:Ever since I died, I've been a little jumpy.
Speaker:I understand that.
Speaker:I can see you being jumpy.
Speaker:It makes sense.
Speaker:But it's just a cut for now.
Speaker:If it gets worse, we'll do some more digging.
Speaker:The book has calmed down, and he puts Neosporn and a bandaid on his cut, which in this world is...
Speaker:Some duct tape with some toilet paper on top for tap padding.
Speaker:Butter, duct tape, and toilet paper.
Speaker:No, I'm sure Ocean has some alcohol that he could probably use.
Speaker:He could probably pour it a little bit in there.
Speaker:When you pour it, does it bubble?
Speaker:Yes, strangely.
Speaker:And then a bunch of little worms crawl out.
Speaker:So it doesn't bubble or it does bubble?
Speaker:Oh, he's just shitting on us.
Speaker:Feeding our paranoia.
Speaker:I just never know what's like just a throwaway comment and what's going to kill my character.
Speaker:Yeah, anything can kill you.
Speaker:That's the fun part.
Speaker:It seems like whatever those things we're fighting about ended.
Speaker:But whatever it was is then that shack that I was telling you about with the terminal, I think.
Speaker:I just want to check it out.
Speaker:Did you trigger it when you opened your mind, or did you just happen to open your mind at like a really opportune time for us to get critical plot information?
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:That's interesting.
Speaker:I think we need to go back there, though, sometime when it's less eyes and less attention on us.
Speaker:Yeah, I agree.
Speaker:I was really hoping we could go back, but after all that occurred just then, I think we probably need to wait till at least nighttime.
Speaker:I think we should go tonight.
Speaker:I think we should go before we leave for Subtropolis.
Speaker:I think that we should go before the town hall meeting tomorrow so that we know what we're getting ourselves into.
Speaker:But before we do that, I think, are we around the same time of day?
Speaker:I don't know what time of day it is, because we were awake for two days.
Speaker:No one knows.
Speaker:What are the lights in the Subtropolis's city looking like?
Speaker:Because that's how we use the time of day, right?
Speaker:It's like when the lights are on its day.
Speaker:You think it's nearing the end of the day.
Speaker:OK, I want to go back to my house, and I want to bathe as much as one can bathe in the Apocalypse and change my clothes, because I've been wearing the same clothes for three days.
Speaker:Do you want to meet back up at nightfall?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But no, no, but while I'm at my house, I want to look at the mirror and see if I see light.
Speaker:Very exciting.
Speaker:You look at it, and there is no light.
Speaker:I stare at it while I get dressed.
Speaker:Smash cut two hours later.
Speaker:You guys are ready for your heist.
Speaker:Because we're an all black baby.
Speaker:I was about to say, Ocean's wearing darker clothes.
Speaker:And then I want to find like a pile of soot, and I want to like smear some, I want to like disrupt the contours of our faces.
Speaker:You can do that.
Speaker:That's what they do.
Speaker:That's what it's for.
Speaker:That's why you put face paint on.
Speaker:Yeah, sure.
Speaker:You look slightly different.
Speaker:And you're outside of the main grounds of the courtyard right now.
Speaker:As you guys infiltrate, I'll let you come up with, at the time you need them, you can have three slots of useful items that you could have collected in this like pre-prep time period that we're in right now.
Speaker:So if you're like, I need a rope, that's just one of the slots.
Speaker:But if it's super specific, it's going to take two of those slots.
Speaker:So if it's like, I need a cool rope, that's two slots.
Speaker:What if it's something that would be like standard, standard carry for us?
Speaker:Like a magnifying glass?
Speaker:Then you got it.
Speaker:This only counts things that help you get through things that you normally wouldn't already have.
Speaker:I thought all the doors got unlocked.
Speaker:So that all got restored?
Speaker:Yeah, that was hours ago.
Speaker:Whatever.
Speaker:Though hopefully the deadbolt has not been found out yet.
Speaker:There are still some lights on in the courthouse proper as you approach it.
Speaker:There's no one standing guard outside the front, like the front entrance that you walked into.
Speaker:The whole back area, which you are trying to get into right now, has that very high fence I mentioned before that has some barbed wire angled outward towards you.
Speaker:So I pull out my electronic circular saw.
Speaker:Okay, that's two.
Speaker:Just kidding.
Speaker:She just said the front door is not guarded?
Speaker:Not from what you can see outside.
Speaker:There's almost certainly someone probably inside.
Speaker:The courthouse?
Speaker:It's out?
Speaker:And we're trying to get behind it?
Speaker:Yeah, interesting.
Speaker:I'm like, oh shit, should we just go in the front door?
Speaker:I think that's not the best plan.
Speaker:I don't know if they...
Speaker:So there's the courthouse, and then there's like a wall built around the courthouse that you're saying, like, that prevents us from going back?
Speaker:Yeah, there's the courthouse, which you can just walk up to the front steps.
Speaker:And there's this big, tall fence built around the backside of it, encompassing all those extra buildings, including the one you're trying to get to.
Speaker:And then the only entrance you saw into that fence is through the inside of the courthouse from a room that opens up with a back door.
Speaker:What type of fence is it?
Speaker:It's a nine foot tall fence with barbed wire outwards, like you'd see at a prison.
Speaker:But chain link?
Speaker:Is it like chain link?
Speaker:Yeah, but like that good double chain link that you can't see through very well.
Speaker:It's got some of those like privacy aspects, you know.
Speaker:OK, so I said our best bet is to make this look like an accident.
Speaker:And I want to see if there is anything that we could that we could knock over that would crash into the fence and either allows to scale over the fence or would knock down the fence in an area.
Speaker:But it would maybe like look like some like some sort of natural occurrence, like a telephone pole or like a really big sign or like a telephone or like a street light or something like that.
Speaker:Give me a sharp roll.
Speaker:OK, I'm also really that's going to make a big noise, though, and people are going to come investigate it.
Speaker:That's a ten, baby.
Speaker:There are two things of interest.
Speaker:First, there is a very large telephone pole that is a good distance away.
Speaker:But if it had happened to fall in this direction, it would certainly hit it.
Speaker:And then there's a large sign that's been graffitied over with all this cool butterflies and geometric shapes.
Speaker:That one would be a really good way of just climbing over it if you leaned it against it.
Speaker:But it would be very unlikely to be a natural occurrence where this sign would like uproot itself and fall.
Speaker:So it would be a bigger cell for people to think it was an accident.
Speaker:Now, if we knock over the telephone pole, would we be like denying power to people?
Speaker:This one doesn't have any cables running on it right now.
Speaker:So it's just a big old pulse.
Speaker:Most of the power in this town has actually ran along the ground.
Speaker:But this is from the before times.
Speaker:The before times.
Speaker:Then does it look like kind of rickety, like something we'd be able to conceivably push over?
Speaker:Oh, yeah, it's definitely rickety and half eaten.
Speaker:So I turn to Ocean and I go, if we can knock this thing over and like hide, we could conceivably hide long enough for people to poke their heads out, see that it fell over, and decide that it's a problem for tomorrow.
Speaker:It makes me slightly concerned that it would put them a little bit more on edge though, more prone to watching things go on.
Speaker:That's my only concern with that plan.
Speaker:Yeah, I agree.
Speaker:I agree.
Speaker:But what if...
Speaker:Okay, hear me out.
Speaker:Okay, okay, hear me out.
Speaker:What if it happens but we're already inside?
Speaker:So what if we cut the fence and then knock that thing over when we leave so that it erases the evidence?
Speaker:I like that plan, Ashley.
Speaker:I like that plan a lot.
Speaker:And so when we cut the fence, do we...
Speaker:We're going to do it in like a weird pattern so it looks like it's snapped, you know?
Speaker:Yeah, not like a human shaped silhouette.
Speaker:Yeah, not like...
Speaker:Yeah, something you got to wiggle through potentially.
Speaker:Right, like basically just like make it look like it tore near so that it's like basically just a vertical slit that we're going to have to pull open and slide through.
Speaker:Okay, I'll let you do that with a try something challenging role that you succeed in.
Speaker:If you use just a normal item, like some normal ass wire cutters, it'll just be a straight up roll.
Speaker:If you can come with a cooler specific item, you can have advantage on that roll.
Speaker:Do we both have three items or...?
Speaker:Yeah, you both get three items.
Speaker:You just have to describe something cool that would actually help.
Speaker:I'm fine with Ocean using up two items for that because I think Ocean would have tools at his place that would let him bring.
Speaker:I'm betting he has something that's used to cut metal poles.
Speaker:It's kind of like a big old...
Speaker:You know those PVC cutters?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Except for metal.
Speaker:I feel like that's overkill for this, but yeah.
Speaker:It's overkill, but it would let us get in.
Speaker:True.
Speaker:Without any...
Speaker:Maybe it's just a big old...
Speaker:Just big wire cutters or something.
Speaker:Give me that try something challenging roll with advantage.
Speaker:Oh, thank God.
Speaker:That is a seven.
Speaker:Oh, God.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It was a...
Speaker:My first roll was a one and a two.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That does actually roll me over for a...
Speaker:Improvement?
Speaker:Experience, which...
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:No, it does.
Speaker:Let's see.
Speaker:I think that's gonna roll over there.
Speaker:I have five XP.
Speaker:It's gonna push me to six.
Speaker:Yeah, I get an improvement.
Speaker:You can wait and choose later, or if it's something useful now, it will come into play immediately if you pick it now.
Speaker:I need to look through the playbooks because I still have one extra one I can steal from another playbook.
Speaker:Oh, I found an improvement I really like.
Speaker:OK.
Speaker:The gear cutter has got a bunch of cool ones, but there's one here that's really cool, and it fits with all the weird psychic stuff that's been going on.
Speaker:So there's an improvement called Things Speak, and it's whenever you handle or examine something interesting, roll weird.
Speaker:On a hit, you can ask the MC questions.
Speaker:On a 10+, ask three.
Speaker:On a 739, ask one.
Speaker:And those questions are, who handled this last?
Speaker:Who made this?
Speaker:What strong emotions have been recently nearby this?
Speaker:What words have been said most recently?
Speaker:What has been done most recently with it?
Speaker:And what is wrong with it?
Speaker:And how might I fix it?
Speaker:I think that fits so well with Ocean.
Speaker:And I love that also because it's going to really cement, like, as far as, like, a detective duo goes.
Speaker:Like, Ocean now has a very useful detective ability.
Speaker:And I got plus one weird, so...
Speaker:Yeah, that's what I'm doing.
Speaker:I'm taking a new move.
Speaker:I like it.
Speaker:That's a good move.
Speaker:And I have always thought you should get that move.
Speaker:So I'm very happy you finally have it.
Speaker:Well, it's a perfect pick.
Speaker:As you go and cut through this, you're going to have to cut it in a way where you think it's probably going to scrape the shit out of you.
Speaker:And it may hurt a little bit, may make some tears.
Speaker:Or it's going to be, if someone does take the time to look at this closely, they're going to be able to tell it's cut by some man-made cutter and not by a pole thong.
Speaker:I'm okay with getting hurt.
Speaker:I think I'd much prefer to get hurt here than have something that could be traced back to us.
Speaker:I concur.
Speaker:Then as you guys squeeze through, you both take one armor piercing harm.
Speaker:Oh, that's perfect.
Speaker:I already have that marked on my sheet from when I took a picture of this sheet that's so old at this point.
Speaker:I just have comments all over it.
Speaker:Question.
Speaker:Are you sure that book with the cane can't wedge it open?
Speaker:Let me look.
Speaker:Yeah, I'm sure.
Speaker:Because it's the trade-off.
Speaker:Well, I didn't fuck up the roll.
Speaker:It's all I'm saying.
Speaker:Yep, but it's going to hurt both of you.
Speaker:So it looks like you can get through, and you do use the cane to kind of wedge it open further.
Speaker:But there's this one gnarly little coil that comes down, and it scrapes right along the center of your back, and it actually pierces through your leather jacket, and gets to your flesh and hurts.
Speaker:That's not the leather jacket.
Speaker:That's a fucked thing to say, Stu.
Speaker:Well, that's what happened.
Speaker:Take it back.
Speaker:I can't.
Speaker:It was just too sharp.
Speaker:You know, sharper than leather.
Speaker:If a cow came through here, come out burgers.
Speaker:Nice.
Speaker:Fair enough.
Speaker:So we're in.
Speaker:You're in the courtyard from here.
Speaker:You can see there is someone posted out back on that door that you came out from previously to enter the courtyard.
Speaker:They are very haphazardly on post.
Speaker:It looks like it's just a shitty job.
Speaker:Someone's probably never tried to infiltrate in here.
Speaker:Why would anything?
Speaker:They don't have to look out for any wildlife or anything, but there's someone around back from that door that you are familiar with.
Speaker:He's just sitting there looking incredibly bored.
Speaker:Should we like throw a rock to try to get his attention somewhere else?
Speaker:Like in a video game?
Speaker:Must have been my imagination.
Speaker:How so looking at him, is there a way we can go around him that has like lots of cover that will get us to the unit that we want to go to?
Speaker:Or do we pretty much have to go through to get to it?
Speaker:No, he is more towards the guard is towards the actual courthouse.
Speaker:So to get to the place you're going, you probably sneak along the outskirt.
Speaker:You know, from being here previously, it's near the actual barracks, which there may be some activity around, but you can't see from here.
Speaker:Can I read the situation?
Speaker:Yeah, sure.
Speaker:I get three, three questions.
Speaker:Nice.
Speaker:I want to know what I should be on the lookout for, which it sounds like I already kind of know.
Speaker:But is there anything else that is less obvious?
Speaker:The other thing that I want to know is what is our best way into that place that we're trying to get into?
Speaker:Good choice.
Speaker:And then the last thing is, shit.
Speaker:It's always the third one that's hard.
Speaker:I guess just what poses the biggest threat to us.
Speaker:As you start moving a little bit closer towards the building, you hear what poses the biggest threat.
Speaker:There are a lot of Hickory's men still awake at the barracks.
Speaker:You can hear it's like there's a low key party going on right now.
Speaker:They have a good time after hours.
Speaker:There's some chatting.
Speaker:There's people out front smoking, playing some card games, things like that.
Speaker:You think at least a dozen people just based on the volume you can hear now of people talking.
Speaker:That's the biggest immediate threat.
Speaker:What you should be on the lookout for are these buildings, the storage units that I mentioned before with the big metal rolly doors.
Speaker:There are some motion sensitive lights that could potentially see you as you make your way along the kind of winding back way that's out of view of the guards.
Speaker:It would be incredibly obvious if one of these popped on that someone was back here moving around, and people would be able to see it from quite far away.
Speaker:To get into the actual building, you can only really see two main points of egress or ingress.
Speaker:There's a large vent out back where the HVAC unit is expelling all that hot server air.
Speaker:You think you would probably have to like, it'd be difficult to get in that way.
Speaker:You may have to disassemble a fan or shut something down to be able to get in through there.
Speaker:And then there's the front door that Ocean went through previously, which you can't see from here, but you know it exists on the other side.
Speaker:And we'd probably die of carbon monoxide poisoning.
Speaker:OK, so that was Biggest Threat and Best Way In.
Speaker:Did we cover what I should be on the lookout for?
Speaker:Yes, the lights.
Speaker:Oh, OK, sorry.
Speaker:The Biggest Threat is always motion activated lights when you live underground.
Speaker:OK, that is probably very true, actually.
Speaker:It's probably good advice.
Speaker:I take plus one going forward, and I think we should just try to sneak in the front door.
Speaker:OK, do you think I should like pick up like a rock and see if I can like, and break the the bulb of any of the motion activated lights that we'd be passing by?
Speaker:Or do you think we should just try and be slow and avoid them?
Speaker:I was just going to try to avoid them, if there's a good way for us to do that.
Speaker:Is there a good way for us to do that?
Speaker:You think you're probably going to go through the vision or the activation range of the one closest to the front door of the building you're heading towards.
Speaker:You don't know how sensitive it is, though.
Speaker:You haven't tested any of these out, so it's a guess.
Speaker:So I would like to use a cool item to try to help with that.
Speaker:Fucking tubular, dude.
Speaker:I would like to use my slingshot to get a pebble and break the light.
Speaker:Is that two items or one item?
Speaker:Pebbles are free in this apocalypse.
Speaker:No, I meant the slingshot.
Speaker:Oh, absolutely.
Speaker:Yeah, that definitely counts as two.
Speaker:It's a cool item.
Speaker:I imagine you're Dennis the Minnestyle in your back pocket carrying around at all times.
Speaker:Well, in that case, I use my gun.
Speaker:You can use a gun.
Speaker:I'm just kidding.
Speaker:So I don't want to make you roll aggro for this.
Speaker:So let me see if I can convince myself.
Speaker:Roll aim.
Speaker:Is your aggro your hard better?
Speaker:They are both minus one.
Speaker:Okay, let's have a try something challenging with advantage since you're using your cool item.
Speaker:Cool.
Speaker:Does the plus one forward apply here?
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:I don't know that I'll need to reroll one, but yeah, so that first roll was a nine, a five and a four.
Speaker:Yeah, so a nine minus one is eight plus one is nine again.
Speaker:You're going to be able to do this, but it's going to be very obvious that someone has broken this light in the future, which is going to make your tale of a series of unfortunate events hard to believe.
Speaker:Yeah, but this one is by that building.
Speaker:Affirmative.
Speaker:It's like right where an ocean already broke that lock.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So I kind of feel like that's worth the risk.
Speaker:What do you think, Ocean?
Speaker:I think it's worth the risk.
Speaker:I think the accident stuff is just to keep it off of us temporarily.
Speaker:I think they're going to find out somebody was in here eventually at some point.
Speaker:Yeah, I agree.
Speaker:But if the light broken could be broken from all kinds of different things, maybe one of the soldiers or something did it.
Speaker:I think it would cover our trace, our route back that nobody broke in to do this.
Speaker:I think we should hopefully be covered.
Speaker:I agree.
Speaker:All right, Stu, I shoot the light with my sling shot.
Speaker:The pebble flies through the air soaring and then breaking the glass with this tiny little as this tiny little bulb inside of it shatters.
Speaker:Hell yeah.
Speaker:Strong work.
Speaker:All right, I guess now we're going to sneak over to it.
Speaker:We're going to.
Speaker:Both of you, give me an act under fire.
Speaker:Oh, thank God.
Speaker:Does the plus one for to only apply for book?
Speaker:No, you can both have it.
Speaker:You can both have one when acting on that information from the God.
Speaker:I got snake eyes.
Speaker:Oh, God, I got.
Speaker:But I got plus two and plus one.
Speaker:So I got a five.
Speaker:Even with snake eyes, I got a seven.
Speaker:As you guys go sneaking along, you quickly jump across the small gap between two of these buildings to get to the side of the building you're trying to get to, right where you know this light you broke is at.
Speaker:You put your backs against the wall of the shack you're trying to break into so you can scoot around.
Speaker:But that light had two bulbs in it, and it shines light directly towards you.
Speaker:The light right now, since one of the bulbs is broken, you guys are back to back across from it, and the light is illuminating just book completely.
Speaker:And then Ocean is just to the side of it in the darkness.
Speaker:I go, open the door, open the door.
Speaker:Yeah, Ocean will immediately start pulling, seeing if he can get in the door.
Speaker:This is going to be an act under fire for just Ocean.
Speaker:Do we still have the plus one forward, or is that not applied anymore?
Speaker:I'll give it to you.
Speaker:I think I'm being nice, though.
Speaker:I was about to say, you're being very generous.
Speaker:Oh, that's, I did not need it.
Speaker:Didn't need it.
Speaker:That is a 13.
Speaker:You go and you whirl around the corner, and you go to open the door, and the brick is actually still keeping it kind of ajar a little.
Speaker:And you push through it, and you grab book by the neck and by the scruff of the neck and just pull them in.
Speaker:You close the door back.
Speaker:Right now, it's like right on the brick.
Speaker:So it's still ajar.
Speaker:You hear some steps outside coming around the building.
Speaker:Like people are looking around somewhere.
Speaker:At least one pair.
Speaker:I feel like we should leave the door open.
Speaker:Yeah, I think if they're coming around this way, then it's going to sound like somebody's here.
Speaker:They're going to see it shut.
Speaker:Is there any spots that we can easily hide in?
Speaker:Wait, so Stu, does the door open to the outside of the building or to the inside?
Speaker:Like, is it a push in or a pull out?
Speaker:It is a push in door.
Speaker:OK, so and it's wedged open a little bit?
Speaker:With the brick.
Speaker:Is there any way that we could like position ourselves behind a desk to hide?
Speaker:You can try.
Speaker:Also, I think it was a pretty cheap shot that the light that I shot had two bulbs.
Speaker:I'm just saying.
Speaker:Man, you just didn't see it.
Speaker:Don't know what to tell you.
Speaker:Even though I rolled for it.
Speaker:From where you were, it did look like only one.
Speaker:OK, so I'd like to hide behind a desk.
Speaker:Let's say there's probably we can probably we can hide behind this.
Speaker:Ocean will kind of try and hide behind like the.
Speaker:He's like a bunch of server racks, right?
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:The funniest thing is this is probably what Hickory wanted me to work on anyway.
Speaker:So we probably.
Speaker:But Ocean doesn't know that.
Speaker:Yeah, that's fine.
Speaker:That's metagamey.
Speaker:So Ocean will hide behind some server racks.
Speaker:Well, because it's behind the desk.
Speaker:Both of you give me another act under fire roll.
Speaker:That is an eight.
Speaker:Fucking damn it.
Speaker:Do I still get plus one?
Speaker:This is the last one.
Speaker:But yes, after this, you'll be in a different scene.
Speaker:You hear footsteps.
Speaker:You all hunker down, trying to quiet your breath and be as silent as possible.
Speaker:And it's like five or six minutes before this door finally creaks open.
Speaker:And it looks like someone's looking around outside while holding it open.
Speaker:You see a light shine through the servers, kind of scattering on the walls against you.
Speaker:And it goes right above all of your heads, just searching around.
Speaker:And you hear footsteps go a few steps into the room, and you see the light on the floor is like right in front of you, even bouncing off your shoe some.
Speaker:Then it's silent for a while, and you hear the steps kind of back up a little bit, and then the door closes all the way, more than it was before with the brick holding it.
Speaker:Like he moved the brick, you can hear a little click as it moves.
Speaker:And then you hear a little tiny click as it locks.
Speaker:I want to look through the, like the bottom.
Speaker:Do I still see his like shoes?
Speaker:Is he still in here?
Speaker:You do not see shoes.
Speaker:I don't do shit.
Speaker:Ocean's going to wait a little bit longer before coming out to see if he hears anything.
Speaker:You wait another five, ten minutes.
Speaker:You don't hear any breathing.
Speaker:You then hear a big metal rolly door go up outside.
Speaker:That's the last thing you hear for a while.
Speaker:I think, I think at this point, all right, Ocean's going to say, all right, look, I think, I think we're as clear as it's going to be.
Speaker:I'm assuming we hid somewhere where we could like make eye contact.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So I look at it and I'm like, I shrug and I poke my head up.
Speaker:Is anyone there?
Speaker:Nope.
Speaker:OK, I go up to the door and I try the handle.
Speaker:Does it turn?
Speaker:Nope, it is locked.
Speaker:It locks from the outside.
Speaker:It does lock from the outside.
Speaker:He did tell us that actually.
Speaker:Oh, because he said there was two locks.
Speaker:There was the deadbolt from the inside and then there's like a shh.
Speaker:That is correct.
Speaker:Shitty lock.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So we've locked in.
Speaker:That's OK.
Speaker:I think we can get out pretty easily.
Speaker:There's still the fans and stuff we can get through.
Speaker:Unless you can pick it.
Speaker:But I think we need to go out behind anyway at this point.
Speaker:I was going to say the book, if we needed to, the book probably does carry a lockpick set, or that could be one of his items, but that might count as two.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:So I just I whisper to Ocean, which terminal was it?
Speaker:It's this one over here.
Speaker:He'll motion towards it.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:I get in.
Speaker:You get in and you see it.
Speaker:Do you know anything about computers?
Speaker:Fuck yeah, dude.
Speaker:Zine was his mom.
Speaker:Zine Machine was his mom, dude.
Speaker:She's got fucking programming books all over the house.
Speaker:Book knows C++.
Speaker:He knows Basic.
Speaker:He knows Go.
Speaker:He knows Python.
Speaker:He knows Ada.
Speaker:He knows JavaScript.
Speaker:He knows HTML.
Speaker:It's weird this didn't come up in any of your previous books facts.
Speaker:It's just like, I don't know.
Speaker:He knows CSS.
Speaker:He knows whatever the other ones are.
Speaker:Really?
Speaker:I'm surprised.
Speaker:I didn't think of Book as like a computer guy at all.
Speaker:Like, he's all books.
Speaker:If Zine was his mom, yeah.
Speaker:It seems unlikely you have a computer in your cave.
Speaker:They're pretty rare.
Speaker:He literally showed Crandall how to use a computer.
Speaker:Yeah, like iTunes touch screen.
Speaker:Yeah, with iTunes.
Speaker:He knows basic.
Speaker:He knows...
Speaker:Okay, I'm not saying you can't.
Speaker:This is not me pushing back.
Speaker:I'm just trying to get an accurate feeling for Book.
Speaker:I feel like that type of logic really...
Speaker:Yeah, that's kind of his deal.
Speaker:He likes the...
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I mean, like, I didn't think there were really any computers left for him to be able to...
Speaker:Yeah, there really aren't.
Speaker:Okay, let me say that...
Speaker:Okay, so he has read all of the programming books.
Speaker:He has never programmed.
Speaker:Is that a nice compromise?
Speaker:It's not a compromise again, but yes, I think that makes some good sense.
Speaker:We're trying to just get a little introspective on him here.
Speaker:I mean, he had a lot of free time when he was a kid, and he didn't have parents, so I think he read all of the books in the house.
Speaker:I don't think he had a computer to practice on, but I think that he understands the...
Speaker:Okay, give me a sharp roll, then.
Speaker:That was an eight.
Speaker:Ocean, would you like to help that eight?
Speaker:Because you do know computers, Ocean.
Speaker:That's something I'm confident in.
Speaker:Yeah, Ocean confidently thinks he knows computers.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You can at least point out the comments that Vesuvius pointed out to you.
Speaker:Yeah, he'll be like, look here, let me show you the things Vesuvius showed me.
Speaker:He said he didn't know any of the code, but here's the comments and blah, blah, blah, blah, showing him all the stuff that he saw.
Speaker:And he's like, and this is the little button that I pressed that made it go beep.
Speaker:Nice.
Speaker:You feel like that's a good help?
Speaker:Enough of a help?
Speaker:Nailed it.
Speaker:I love that.
Speaker:I love that, personally.
Speaker:Am I helping with a book roll, or am I helping with a specific roll?
Speaker:You can just roll help.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:I have nothing for helping you right now, Book.
Speaker:So this is a two natural die.
Speaker:You should have plus one.
Speaker:Oh, it goes back to one?
Speaker:Oh, okay.
Speaker:Yeah, it goes back to one.
Speaker:That's a ten.
Speaker:Nice.
Speaker:Yeah, you fully help, and you both get plus one on your HX with each other.
Speaker:So you look down, it's much different in practice than in the books you've read, Book.
Speaker:It's immediately very confusing, and this happens to be particularly complicated code.
Speaker:There's all these weird symbols and things, and the way they're all different, and the way this software communicates together is not very straightforward.
Speaker:Luckily, that confusing part is what Ocean actually understands very well.
Speaker:He's able to understand how these different classes talk to each other and everything like that.
Speaker:Looking at how the software is written right now, you can tell it's related to the power grid, which makes sense.
Speaker:It's doing something, but the code is way more complex than you've seen anywhere else.
Speaker:There's a lot of strange things.
Speaker:There's function classes that you just don't understand what they're doing.
Speaker:Digging through it for a while and reading all these comments, probably another 10, 20 minutes, you realize what's happening is the power from Metropolis is being managed by some sort of artificial intelligence that determines how it's allocated throughout the whole city.
Speaker:And what Zine Machine and Randy Candy have been working on is trying to trick that AI to be allocating more power to Hamlet Opening, and it seems to be a never ending back and forth battle between the city's AI and this counter AI that Zine Machine and Randy Candy have programmed.
Speaker:Oh, that would be the two giants battling.
Speaker:I want to type into the terminal, hello.
Speaker:It says bash error, hello, command not found.
Speaker:Okay, that makes sense.
Speaker:Seem de-lit, missing.
Speaker:That makes sense.
Speaker:Okay, so that's Linux.
Speaker:That's good.
Speaker:Also, I want to look into the code to see if there's any references to the maelstrom.
Speaker:Just by like control f-ing?
Speaker:Yeah, or like psi, anything psi, PSY.
Speaker:You do not see anything related to maelstrom.
Speaker:Or psychic.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:Or about wolves.
Speaker:Nope.
Speaker:Ocean's going to be like, here, can I see it for just a second?
Speaker:I got a weird feeling about it.
Speaker:Yeah, go for it.
Speaker:And he's going to touch the computer, and he's going to let it speak.
Speaker:He's going to do a thing speak.
Speaker:Thank you so much for listening to this week's episode.
Speaker:Glad to be back on schedule with you guys.
Speaker:This is the last one where the audio is fucked up.
Speaker:All future recordings are done through all the normal mechanisms, except for maybe Jacob.
Speaker:Music and editing is all performed by Stu Masterson, while Brady is the only person to touch a pencil or a digital pencil and makes all the cool art and logos and things like that.
Speaker:And Jacob cannot be re-broadcast without the express written permission of the STU.
Speaker:See y'all next week on Wednesday!
Speaker:Love you, bye.
