Mayday Plays - Tales From The Loop, Ep. 1 - "Welcome to Wake Wind"

Episode Date: April 10, 2023

Welcome to Wake Wind, Montana where life is quiet...usually. There's frogs, and a swamp, and something lurking in the woods. Did we mention there's a Loop? GM Lev spins a whimsical 4 part adventure using Tales From The Loop. Players include Eli and Zak of Mayday, Kerri Smith of CrossXRoad Games, Allison of Insight Checked, and Lex of Titanomachy RPG. We've got merch! https://ko-fi.com/maydayrp (t-shirts and stickers) Thanks for checking out our channel! We offer a bunch of art, music, and behind-the-screen access including Vegas By Night 1-on-1 sessions on our Patreon; https://www.patreon.com/maydayrp including access to our discord server! We started as a podcast! Listen to us @: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mayday-plays/id1537347277 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5vdTgXoqpSpMssSP9Vka3Z?si=73ec867215744a01 Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/mayday-roleplay Here are some of our other socials; Twitter: https://twitter.com/maydayroleplay Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maydayrp/ Website: https://maydayroleplay.com/ Thanks for your support! Broadcasted live on Twitch -- Watch live at https://www.twitch.tv/maydayroleplay

A very bitchin' good morning to you all and welcome to Mayday's Bite Size, Pint Size, Tales From The Loop campaign. My name is Lev and I will be your babysitter this game. As you can see, we've got some new faces and some old, but you'll get to meet them in a moment. Right now, we'll work our way through a few announcements. First off, this is a pre-recorded stream. All of Tales is going to be pre-recorded for the mental and scheduling sake of everyone

involved, but those of us who are available will be in chat with you and watching along. I'm not promising anyone, but if anyone has the spoons for it, we'll be there. So thank you for joining us. This is very exciting. For those of you who have watched along with our other shows, parts of this intro may sound very familiar. That's because it is and I jacked it from Caleb, so shout out to our vampire boy I guess. If you have missed out on any chapters of Tales From The Loop, do not fear.

You can still check it out on Spotify, Twitch, VOD, and our YouTube channels as of right now. If you're wondering how you can get more Mayday in your life, you can catch our streams here every other Saturday for our main show. You can follow us on all major platforms as well as Spotify, SoundCloud, for podcast-friendly recordings of all our major shows and streams. And finally, you can donate to us on Patreon and during our Patreon Discord. The Discord is where we've really had a chance to build a great little family or on the content

we've put out. We have patrons who have joined each other's games and played in some hosted by ourselves. We have once again struck up the doom-to-repeat Deadpool. Now that Season 3 has begun recording, that giggling isn't any kind of clue of anything. We've also started a thread-concerning One Patrons campaign set within Cthulhu's terrifying Yellow Mark universe and have spent a little bit of time helping to torture their players. And we've shared some of our favorite, or most cursed, food choices. In addition to all of that craziness, you have the opportunity to listen to exclusive

Patreon content and behind-the-scenes information, which is rad and cool because I think my friends are rad and cool. And that's all. That's not all. I have more things to say. We would like to give a shout-out as well to our Handler...Handler, fuck me. This is why I'm not in charge of things, you guys. We'd also like to give a shout-out to our Handler-level patrons.

It's because of their involvement in our content that we have begun to think of all the big picture ideas that we have for Mayday. To give you a tangible way that you've helped us in recording the newest Junter repeat season, we noticed that Caleb had an audio issue with his mic and we're immediately able to dip into the funds to find a solution to that, which was super quick and useful and super helpful in getting us to be traumatized by Sergio. So all because you had our backs, we got to cry some more. So thank you.

Specifically, thank you to Onk, OJPAN, Bimblewort, Cameron S, Eric A, Jonathan M, Ren, WTF, and Alex Johnson. Y'all are super homies. As well as all of our other patrons, we appreciate your support so much. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. Other than that, please check out our Vampire the Masquerade game, Vegas by Night, run by our resident monster boy, Caleb, full of political intrigue and messy interpersonal drama. Our Delta Green game, doomed to repeat in anticipation of season 3, which I can tell

you is something. Our fantasy campaign centered in the island world of Ashoka, where Elias crafted a world so brimming with love that it leaks into every recording, and you can hear multiple of us cry, mostly me. And our old World of Darkness campaign using the Orpheus system, with the one and only Vince from Black Project Gaming. All of which are available on all major podcasting platforms, YouTube and Twitch. Finally, we want to give some love to our last member, Vince, who is on a little Mayday

hiatus. And if you haven't heard already, Vince has actually been signed on to create some expansion material for the new Street Wolf sourcebook by TableCat Games. So look out for Dead Hand when it's available to the TTRPG community at large. We love you dearly, and we can't wait to have you back at the table. Before we get started today, I swear I'm almost done talking, I just wanted to say that Tales from the Loop is set in the 80s, but this community is pretty isolated. Trigger and content warnings for this episode include mentions of hunting, people going

missing reptiles and amphibians of varying types, including snakes and frogs, and distant or negligent adult figures. If you need to step away at any point, take care of yourself please. That's important. Above all else. All right, I think that's everything, so that's enough of my hammering. Let's introduce our players and their characters and then jump into our game. Players please introduce yourselves, your pronouns, your characters, their pronouns,

and what archetype or flavor you've chosen. Let's go ahead and start with Allison. Oh boy. Hi all. I'm Allison. I'm insight checked on the internet. My pronouns are she, her. My character will be Henry, Biggs, or HB, or Hamburger Boy to some.

His pronouns are he, him, and he is a jock. Fantastic. Let's jump over to Keri. Hello. I am Keri Smith. I am playing Peyton. We both use she, her pronouns, and she is a troublemaker. Fantastic.

Lex. Hi everyone. I'm Lex, also known as TitanomaKeyRPG on Twitter. I'm playing Chaeyoung Kim. They, them pronouns, we both use they, them pronouns, and they are a computer geek. Fantastic. Zack. Hello.

I am Zack. Everywhere It Matters, it's Zack the Drakk. My pronouns are she, they. I am playing Khadija Mitchell, whose pronouns are also she, they. And the archetype I've chosen is Hic. And last but not least, Eli. Hi, I am Eli, I go to Eli on Twitter. I use any and all pronouns.

I am playing Margo Spinelli, aka Radda, who goes by they, she pronouns. Yeah, I'm the weirdo. Amazing. Well gang, let's jump into more of me talking. It's time to introduce you to the world of Tales from the Loop. Okay. Welcome to Wake Wind Montana, 1986, a town that never was in the 80s that could have been.

You've got your goonies in your Star Wars, your Pac-Man in your growing pains, your take on me, and your tainted love. But with the added bonus of robots, magnetic levitation, and dinosaurs? Built in a fit of optimism, just two years after the establishment of the Boulder City Nevada, Wake Wind never became a boom town like its predecessors in the States, Japan, and Sweden. Over the last two decades, Montana's Loop has had less to do with the possibility of teleportation or the movement of troops in foreign lands and is veered toward more questionable

explorations of scientific limitations in our world. It's not uncommon to hear minor explosions or feel micro-earthwakes from the Loop compound, colloquially called the shed. And though most folks in town are employed by them in one way or another, any information about what goes on inside the high electrified fences is confidential and classified. Law enforcement within the town is mostly made up of old forest rangers. Folks in town are usually keen to help one another and the community is strong. There's exactly one jail sale, usually reserved as a spot for adults to sober up if they get

too wild at the town's singular dingy bar, the Red Star. Lately, there's been an increase of shed security milling around town, though. They're dressed tactically with dark sunglasses and what looks like body armor under their clothes. With a population of just under 4,000, the town is relatively small. Faces and attractions include a market, Elfman's Goods, two dueling diners, the Home Kitchen and Greta's Grub, one multi-purpose building, mostly used for worship. Most of the faiths in town work around each other and schedule—um, what's the word?

Oh my gosh, I forgot the word. That is, um, considerably. There it is. They schedule considerably of each other. A few small farms of livestock, a greenhouse that's run by the town's public works, a spot meet slash thrift store, a single-screen movie theater, and the other half of which is a rundown soda fountain with two arcade cabinets, one bar, the Red Star, as I said, and two school buildings.

One houses Pre-K through 7th, elementary, and the other 8th through 12th grade, secondary. Wake Wind sits just west of Tiley Lake on the Missouri River in western Montana. It is partway up the northern side of the mountain, with a clear view of the lake to the east and surrounded by forest and trees to the west and south. Deep green coniferous forest, dense and dark with clearings and some small swampy plateaus where the water never manages to drain fully. The shed sits at the northern tip of Tiley Lake. The next closest town is Whitefish, about 40 minutes to the east.

Given the shed's reputation for experimentation and innovation, things around your town are a little advanced. The plants in the greenhouse in town grow extra fast, though if that's the lights or the genetic modifications within the plants is anybody's guess. Some cars have MagFlight levitation mechanisms, though the town's mechanic is also the home kitchen's owner, Don, so things aren't always fixed in a timely manner. Small dinosaurs are bred and kept as housepats or even run wild in small herds. Some kids even have some kid modes of transportation, such as bikes or skateboards, have little

magnetry and engines on them. The older kids like to drift their cars in fields or drag race along the long empty roads toward the shed. The school has not changed since the 60s. The front window bears different sun-faded motivational posters. One reads, do your best and forget the rest. Another, integrity, because what you do when others aren't watching matters. The final decoration, if it can even be called that, is a small missing person poster.

Clearly, at least 10 years old, with barely legible, have you seen Ash and Drake printed on it? Below it is a small black and white photo of a kid, around 12, smiling impishly, braces bracketing his childishly crooked teeth. The information about him has been lost to the sun's rays, but it isn't surprising. The poster has been there as long as any of you can remember. There's a similarly destroyed poster in the window of the home kitchen and another in the multipurpose building.

Inside the school, not much has changed, as I said, from the 60s, except the school's maglev transportation buses and the lunch bot, affectionately named Platter, who scoops any and all foods onto your trays with varying degrees of accuracy. But today, lunch is over. In fact, this is the last class period before break, and it's a free period. In wake wind, being as distant and isolated as it is, winters can be harsh, dangerous. Sometimes things in town break, sometimes deliveries can't be made to town, and the town has to support itself through the winter with no external help.

So part way into October, students are given a week off of school to help the community prepare for winter. One hour at the shed are cut short. Some families hunt for meat to be dried in kept in reserves in case food delivery becomes untenable. Some patch up buildings and make sure insulation is intact. Some harvest at the greenhouse. Everyone pitches in.

Even kids. Your activities won't take up all of your time, but you are expected to lend a hand for an hour or two each day. So as the school day comes to a close, and you're all preparing for the week to come, let's see. I'm actually going to roll for who we talk to first. Let's see. Chi Young, where do you find yourself during this last free period of school, and how are

you feeling about your upcoming break? Also if you could physically describe what your character looks like and any things they might have on them. Yeah, so Chi Young is sort of like a feminine, androgynous 13-year-old Asian person who wears like orange overalls today, and like a t-shirt underneath, sort of like a halfway between a bowl cut and a bob kind of. Their parents work at the shed, and they work a lot, and also they have family and stuff in town, so they periodically check in, but my hair's a mess.

But it's basically like, look, if you grew up Asian like me, we all had the bowl cut at some point, so that's just part of the stage that we're at. But they kind of make it work. They're really into Metroid right now, because it just came out in Japan, but it's not in the States yet, but one of their cousins came and gave them a copy. And so now they're obsessed with Metroid, and their favorite thing to say is like, did you know Samus is a girl? And so they're just like daydreaming about exploring the different like areas of Metroid,

and also like, okay, the work coming up this week isn't that bad, like they have family that will be helping with some of the harder stuff. Chaeyoung basically just has to like dig holes in the ground, because this is a story my mom told me about growing up in Korea, when it was still a really poor country, is they have really cold winters there. So they would dig these holes, and they would put kimchi in the holes, and they would ferment over the winter, and by the end of that you have like, it's just like the perfect kimchi. And so I think for a town where like resources are intermittent, like fermented foods that

keep a long time are kind of like a big part of the town's diet. I think we just make a whole bunch of it for like the whole town, essentially whoever wants to come by and get some like, you get a little jar of it, it'll last you for a while, especially like people in Montana like, it's only so much kimchi they can handle at one time, as far as like spice goes. So it's like, here's a little garnish for your white bread. But it'll be good for you and you know, it's good stuff. So I'm sort of like daydreaming about it, but also if our little group is hanging out,

I'm 13. So I guess I would only be with, if there's another 13 year old in the, in homeroom, I'd probably be hanging out with them. Are we all the same grade? No, I believe you and Deej are the same age? Okay. I'm 14. Or are you 14?

It's you and Rada that are the same age. Okay. So, yeah, so you guys are sitting in your history class. Mrs. Elliot is trying to get you all to like focus on like, okay, you need to take down all your homework. Are you sure you've written down every class periods homework? And she's kind of like standing over calling Gearheart, the son of the mayor, and she's looking over his planner.

And she's like, Colin, you haven't written anything down for English. I know, I know for a fact that Mr. Domas left you with homework. Go, go, go talk to him. Go find out what your homework is. And Colin kind of goes, no, he didn't give us anything. And she goes, yes, he did go. And Colin kind of slumps off with his backpack over his shoulder and Mrs. Elliot takes a deep breath and turns and turns to you, Cheyong.

And she goes, may I see your planner, please? To be fair, the English homework was like weird. It was like, he said like, I don't know, read a book or something. It was, it was like, it was, it was definitely homework. It was very vague. The math homework is very clear. The English homework. Look, I wrote it down.

It says, read a book or something. I don't, I wrote some symbols here because he said a word I probably shouldn't have wrote down. I don't know, math, something like that. That's, that's paraphrasing. Thank you, Cheyong. I appreciated the quotation marks in there as well. Well, I'm looking forward to your mother's kimchi.

It's always a nice thing to have around the house. What else are you going to be doing over your break? I know you won't be digging holes the entire time. I'm trying to, I'm trying to remember if this is a cool teacher. She tries. She's really into ancient history, but she's a little like she's a little scatterbrained. A lot of the teachers here are a little scatterbrained just because this is there, there, there are very few teachers for a lot of, a lot of students.

Right, right. Um, I'm sort of just like, OK, um, yeah, I'll probably just, I'm going to be digging holes and like hanging out and stuff. I don't know. It's, what? And you can tell she's kind of just like half listening to you and like scanning the classroom for any kind of chaos. Need to be giving this lady information.

I don't know what she needs. What, what is this? Adults don't use information for good. That's, that's what I've learned. Yeah. She, and in that vein, she kind of pats you gently on the shoulder and goes, that's nice, honey. Uh, yeah.

Bryant, Bryant, sit down, I swear to all the gods. And she kind of wanders off, um, and you look over, um, Lex, you're actually going to have the first role of the game. Can you please roll me a, I have to look at my character sheet. Can you please roll me a, um, either a Comprehend or an Empathize role? It's your choice. Comprehend, please. All right.

Cause that is a lot of, a lot more dice. So I rolled Mind and Comprehend. Mind and Comprehend, uh, that whole pool and tell me how many sixes you got. One, six. Amazing. That's all you needed. Um, as Mrs. Uh, Mrs.

Elliot is kind of wandering the classroom back towards Brian. You see, um, Lucy Sonjas, who's, um, also in your class, she's freshly 14 and not letting anyone forget about it. Um, and she's, uh, kind of butted up next to her friend, victory. And she's going, yeah, I, um, I heard that like, something grabbed him in the woods, like just like grabbed his arm and it just snapped like a twig. And her friend is kind of like, no way.

There's no way. He's, he's like, he's like six feet tall and he's only 14. There's no way something snapped his arm like a twig. She was, no, I heard it. I know. I'm the class president. I know these things. He, he was like screaming.

My mom said that like they brought him into like the, the like doctor's office and he was like screaming and victory just kind of like shakes her head and rolls her eyes. Um, and you know that they're talking about, there's only one kid who has a cast on his arm right now and they're talking about Dalton Concord. He is a great ahead of you. Um, his dad is the head of security and he's an absolute asshole. I, I want to like kind of slowly walk up behind them and, and just sort of be like, I heard it was a monster.

Oh my God. Chi-Yung, you can't scare people like that. And even though Lucy's kind of like had a, had an adverse reaction to being surprised, she giggles through it, um, cause she loves a good prank. Okay. Like, but really do you, you have to believe me. It was snapped. My mom told me it was like broken in three places.

Look, I don't know about you, but I know a lot of things that are stronger than a 14 year old boy. Like what? Like what that we would find here is stronger than a 14 year old boy. A 15 year old boy, a 16 year old boy, a 17 year old boy, a 17 year old boy, a monster in the woods, uh, my pet dinosaur, actually she's not a dinosaur. She's a pterosaur. I don't know the difference, but I say dinosaur for you, for, you know, the lay people, um,

a man of any kind, um, maybe a bear. Okay. All right. I get it. I get it. He didn't have puncture wounds though. Like, I don't know. I'm just saying what my mom told me and she knows a lot.

She's like a really good nurse. So maybe it was the ghost of his sins because he's such a piece of shit. And I say shit really quiet. Lucy's like, I'll say shit loud shit. He deserved it. I just, I'm just saying. I don't know. Can I say that?

I mean, I mean, it's called, I think, I think that there's something there. People say something about a gift horse. Maybe, maybe his arm was broken by a gift horse. Hmm. That's interesting. And so, and, uh, as we pull out of this little conversation, she's trying to like describe to you what she thinks a gift horse looks like as she starts to draw it. And we pull out and go to, uh, Khadija, where do we find you on this last day of school?

I think Khadija is fully, has been checked out for weeks now and is truly just here because it would be illegal for her not to be. This is free period, right? Yeah, it's free period. You guys are all like technically in homeroom, but you're allowed to like wander and go to do things that are school related. Okay. I think she is, she has convinced a group of students that she does not have any intention

of knowing the name of, um, but she has convinced them to start racing in the hallway. And she's the one standing at the end, like T posing to see who slaps her hand first and is shouting, just cheering anyone on. It's very, very obvious in the hallway. And that's, that's where she's at. What is, could you describe Khadija for us? So, uh, Khadija is a 14 year old, uh, dark skin, black person. She has a, um, like forest green durag with two little braids with heart barrettes at

the bottom of them. Um, she has a unibrow. She has a white flannel shirt, um, and under that shirt is a tank top that is that like, duck dynasty nature pattern and just jingo, like oversized more pockets than you would think. Incredible. Uh, you are shouting down the hall as these two kids that you, you don't know their name. You've gone to school with them since you were like 10 probably and you have no inclination

to what their names are whatsoever. One of them might start with a T. You're not positive. You don't care. They are hauling ass squeaky sneakers and all down the hallway with the intention of slapping your hand first. And as they pass the one on the left, just barely taps you first and falls to the ground cheering as teenagers are want to do. Um, and from around the corner, a door flings open and you hear the telltale stomping of

steel toad boots as Herbert Robert Christian, a.k.a. HRC, which is all what all the kids call him and he hates it, um, throws himself out of his classroom and goes, what the hell are you doing out here? Science. Does mix cello know you're out here? Do you know we're out here? Aren't you all connected? Yeah, they know.

Probably. Oh, so if I go, if I go walk to miss cello mix cello right now, they'll say, yes, I let Khadija out to go run wild in the hallway with all these other little cretins. Okay. No. That's not what we're doing. Not running wild. We're running in a straight in a line segment.

Learn that today. Uh, we're running in a line segment and, uh, if you go up and explain it to her, she'll know. So I'm trying to teach my class so you need to keep the volume down. Okay. Okay. They're learning about company right now. The best musical I was ever in and he scratches his like grizzled gray beard and like draws

his fingers through it and goes somewhere else entirely for a solid 10 seconds as he looks into the middle distance. And you can almost imagine him as a young man on a stage, maybe handsome, probably not singing a song in his gravelly shitty little voice. Is that the one with the puppets? Is that the one? Is that the show with the puppets in it? Ah, you children have no sense of culture.

There's never been a puppet company company. And he's like his voice is raising and other teachers are starting to like look out of their, uh, of their doors. And finally out of the library comes, uh, another tall, thin woman, uh, freckles across her face, uh, chunky jewelry. And she says, I'm sorry, what's the trouble here? She's upset about the company puppets. The company puppets and, uh, HRC is still railing in the corner to himself.

Just the puppets and company, I, I sing, being alive for so much gumption, they just, they, the reviews, the review. And he's like shaking. Uh, this is Magnolia Pruitt, the librarian apprentice, and she kind of walks over and in a fit of near magic says, but a few words to him and gets him back in his room before turning on you, Khadijah and saying, what, what caused all this? So we, we were, we were racing in the hallway. You could call that, if you looked at it and called it what it was.

And it seemed to upset Mr. H, but it's fine. It's fine. It's the last day of school. It's the last day of school. It's the last day before break. And we are all trying to keep our heads just above the water. So can you please, please take your friends, go back to class. I believe you're in mixed-cellist class right now.

Please, please just go. Just go and sit quietly for the last 20 minutes of the day. Please. And there is a smile on her face that looks as brittle as candy. Fine. Thank you. I look forward to your mother's bobcat stew over the winter. I'll, I'll tell her.

I'll tell her. She's so excited. Don't worry about it. Thank you. And she sends you back on your way towards class. And we pull away from this raucous chaos to, uh, re-roll that one, Peyton, Peyton, where do we find you on this last day of school before fall break? Uh, what do you look like and how are you planning to spend your break?

We see Peyton sitting in homeroom, but sitting in the very, very back and probably just drawing on her jeans, uh, scribbling something on her jeans at this very moment, kind of like curled up in the chair. She's average height for her age, um, short brown hair, a little past the chin, always has like a hat or a beanie or a hood on, um, black eyeliner, maybe a little bit too much of it sometimes. And the shirt changes often, but there's always a tie. There's always a loose tie over the T-shirt.

And she almost always has her skateboard with her. She wears a lot of what would be considered like more punk style bracelets and sweatbands on her arms that cover the majority of her forearms. And her shoes are all torn up. She has duct tape holding specifically the right one together to help protect that from the slide of the grip tape. Um, and yeah, currently she's just sitting scribbling on her jeans, uh, probably drawing the, um, the, uh, logo for Gretta's Grub, uh, thinking about how, um, she'll be doing

those food deliveries over break. Fantastic. Uh, your teacher has fully given up their head. There is in their hands, they have a book open on their desk and they can hear the chaos being incited around them and they don't give a shit. They are, they are, they're ready for all of you to be gone just as ready as you are, as you are all to be gone as well. Um, across the classroom from you, um, Dalton Concord is in fact in your class.

He is, uh, sitting with his casted arm propped up, uh, against the, the chalk rail on the far side of the classroom. And he's kind of holding court with, uh, some of the older popular kids, um, but every now and then he'll kind of glance back at you and, uh, snort laugh just like loud enough that you notice and enough to make you think it might be about you. I like, let it go the first time, probably let it go the second time. The third time you just hear the sound of my pen slamming down on my desk. Do we have a problem?

What? Do you want me to break your other arm? I'd love to see you fucking try. Stand up. He stands up too. And he is, he is a big guy. He's six foot, maybe a little more, uh, he was on the football team, uh, before he broke his arm and he still technically is, but he's just, but can kind of sitting, he's, he's

a stocky big guy and he kind of towers over and tries to like do the intimidating thing of like puffing out his chest and staring down at you. You really want to do this right now? Give it a go. All right. And, uh, and he's going to reach forward and try and just palm your forehead and push you back. As he reaches forward, I just want to punch him in the gut.

All right. Uh, incredible. I love this. Roll me body and I'm, I have to find the page again because I forget everything. This is just like every 80s special I know where the ending morale, uh, moral of the story is violence is the answer. Pretty much. Uh, roll me body and force.

Cool. All right. I rolled a lot of dice and I got one success. You got one success. That's all you needed though. Uh, he reaches forward to palm your head and you being smaller and more agile than he is duck under it, bring your fist back and just launch it into the softest part of his gut.

He doubles over. What the fuck? What the hell's wrong with you? And he reaches up to kind of swing back at you, just not even like a good swing, just a flailing miss. Go ahead and roll me body and move. I got three successes, three sixes. Incredible.

Incredible. Uh, so that's plenty to dodge out of the way. Uh, would you like to buy an effect for how he is, uh, further? What happens to Dalton Conway? I absolutely would love to. I think, um, putting more of his oomph into swinging at me than he intended to, I just step out of the way and he hits his head on the desk. There is a resounding thud that echoes throughout the classroom enough to finally break the teacher

out of her, uh, her reading as Dalton smacks his head on the table as he goes down. All of his friends immediately break into laughter and the teacher stands up. What in the world is happening right now? Right now, and she sees you on your feet and knows you're, uh, you're usually involved when loud noises are happening. Peyton? Yeah. Really?

Yeah. You know where to go. Yeah. And I just grab my pen off the desk and start walking. You head towards the principal's office knowing whatever dressing down awaits you. But maybe if you slow down enough, the bell will ring before you get there. Um, we pull away as Peyton starts tromping through the hallways. Um, actually roll me a luck check.

Me? Uh, Peyton. Oh, how do I do that? I'm picking up a thing that's a luck check that is roll a D6. Evens are yes, odds are no. That's a six. Uh, as you're walking through the hallway, you see your friend Khadija walking back to class.

Um, is there anything you guys, is there any kind of scene you guys want to have? Is it just kind of a high and bye? What's going on with you two? If I see you, um, as we're walking, I'm just going to say that the theater man's upset and so just be real careful when you hit that corner. Cool. Cool. Cool.

Thanks. Thanks for the tip. Yeah. You, you going to the principal's office? Yep. Okay. Have fun. I just give a salute and continue forward.

Yeah. As you're saluted on your walk by Khadija, uh, we pull out and head toward where Margot Spinelli, aka Radda, is sitting in class. Uh, Radda, can you please describe yourself, uh, what you'll be doing over break and where we find you? Radda's, Radda's not, Radda's not in class. Um, Radda is somewhere where they can hang off of like a railing or a bar or some kind and they're feeding a cheese sandwich to their prehistoric rat friend, Rugsby, um,

who's on the ground beneath them and they're picking up just like a, like a, you know, it's a triangle cut, um, got a corner and is just handing it down to them and they're like sniffing it and then eventually like grabs it at their little pause and starts eating the cheese sandwich. Um, uh, Radda is, uh, 13 years old. They're, um, pretty, like pretty tall for, for a 13 year old. They're pushing like five, six, uh, five, seven. Um, they're kind of like lanky, uh, and awkward, uh, like awkward like they have like a very

heavy coat on cause they're outside and then, um, uh, a hat that's on the ground next to, to Rugsby, um, next to their like backpack. Um, but yeah, they got this kind of like a tattered old jacket, like thick, like fingerless gloves and stuff like that. Um, and just like an oddly shaped like cut of hair, um, that's kind of just mopped about like as they're hanging, like hanging out. Um, it's a little greasy. Um, but yeah, they're just, they're just out there hanging out with, uh, with Rugsby.

Does, has no, no desire to be in class. You are in the back, uh, parking lot where most of the teachers park because teachers are in the school, so they won't see you. And you're hanging off the, uh, the wheelchair ramp railing. When you realize that you're being watched from the far corner across the, across the, um, the little courtyard that is also out in the parking lot, you see, uh, a kind of short mixed kid, light hair and a high top freckles. Um, he's got some drumsticks in his back pocket.

He's just kind of standing in the corner, arms crossed, watching you. Uh, you know, this is Frank Alara, who is on the drum line. He's just watching you feeding Rugsby. He's not saying a thing. I, I'm ignoring him because I'm hoping that, that I'm not truly being perceived. Um, I just, I just wanted, I just wanted to, I just wanted to feed my rat. What a mood. Just want to feed my rat and be alone.

The two of you kind of stand in this, uh, impasse for a little while before Frank starts kind of meandering between the cars, looking in, seeing what's up, wandering to the next, appearing in, and then you hear him try one of the handles and it doesn't go. Okay, man, goes to the next one. And a hand, and a car opens. I, I'm, I'm trying not to like look over, but once the car door opens, uh, rat has, rat is just like fixated and looking, I mean, still hanging upside down, but like still just like watching what they're doing.

Uh, Frank starts kind of rattling around inside the car with almost no regard for the fact that anyone could come out and see him at any point. Um, and he reaches under the dashboard and starts fiddling with, um, some of the, uh, you think like the wires maybe? Or actually, Romy, a, Romy, a, Romy and investigate, uh, from a, since you're at a distance, since you're at a distance, it'll be a little extra hard. So I'm going to say you need two successes for this one. Sure.

Uh, that is a big pull for me. That is the biggest pull I can do. That is two successes. Perfect. Uh, you've seen Frank around town enough and you know that he is almost like an apprentice under Don, the, uh, Don Devereux, the owner of Home Kitchen. Um, and he really likes fucking with cars. And you can see him and he's kind of, you think he's almost trying to hotwire it, but

then he shuts the door and doesn't look like he's, the car has started or he's taking it anywhere or anything has happened. Uh, and then he starts walking towards you. I think the moment he starts to like, uh, walk towards me, I think Rad is going to, um, hook themselves from where they're at and get down to where their backpack and Rugsby is and like pick up Rugsby and stuff them in their shirt and try to get their backpack and try to like exit stage left because it usually leads to confrontation. I don't want confrontation.

I just wanted to feed my rat lunch. Um, uh, make a body roll for me. Going from the high, going from the highest pool to the lowest pool. Um, amazing. Just body. Just body. Uh, body, uh, body move. I'm sorry.

Body move. There's nothing in moves. Just body. Well, just body. Well, just body. There's no successes. Uh, you start to pick up your backpack and Rata and you get Rata safely in your, in your shirt.

But as you pick up your backpack, you, uh, kind of grab the bottom of it instead of the top of the strap and a couple of your items to spill out. Um, like I'm just rushing to stuff. Like I don't care. Stuff, papers, bag and Frank passes you bumping you as he usually does. As all the drumline kids usually bump the swamp kids and, uh, and says, you tell anyone you saw that I'm going to tell them. Tell them.

I don't know. I think of a good lie, but I'll lie and I'll tell them something. I didn't see anything. Uh, uh, uh, just feeding the rat. Yep. Okay. Your rat's kind of cool, even if he's gross. Thank you.

Keeps walking into the school. Um, do you, do you go inside? Do you stay outside? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I don't want to be here because there's been a crime. I don't want to be a part of it.

There has been a murder in Savannah. Yeah. I'm, I'm, I'm going back. I'm going to just start like, I guess awkwardly rolling the halls and stuff like that. I have no intentions to go back to the class. Great. You're, uh, you're taking your way around the, the school and we will cut to our last friend, Henry.

Henry, where do we find you on this last day of school? What, uh, what do you look like and what are you going to be doing over the break? So Henry is almost a quintessential jock in a lot of ways. He has the letter jacket. Um, it's got the big felt letter of our school, which would be W. W. Yes. You're the wake wind winds.

It's awesome. Your, your mask got the tornado. Great. Uh, there are rarely tornadoes in this part of Montana, but great. I imagine he's used to, he kind of like is always kind of cheering to himself, um, from all the games, just like wake, win, wins, win. And as he like does any mundane task, washing dishes at his mom's diner, trying to pass a test, which is what he coincidentally is doing right now.

Um, the letter jacket is bulky, but underneath he's a bulky kid. He's got, you know, kind of thick biceps and clearly he's been working out, does like regimented exercise as only a high school coach can train a young man to do. Um, he has kind of frumpy jeans. Um, not very stylish, just kind of like knew what to do on the top. Didn't really know what to do on the bottom because it's not a uniform. Um, what else about Henry? He, he's like a little, I don't know, got little like grease splatters on his clothing.

Um, his backpack is really distinctive. He has like a canvas bag that's like loose on one and he's always slinging it over his shoulder and it has a lot of patches on the bottom, seemingly random. Um, and it has like a long oblong kind of bulky shape that, um, doesn't really fit in the bag. So the bag kind of looks stretched like a, I don't know, like an egg. Um, even though it's supposed to look like, you know, something that contains books, it never contains books. Um, that's Henry.

Right now he is furrowing his brow. Oh, his face is, he's a white skin, um, mostly like ready, a lot of pock marks, a lot of acne. Um, I wouldn't say he's conventionally handsome. Um, kind of like a, uh, large head, uh, lots of curly hair, uh, close crop. And then like, let's go for it. A little bit of a mullet, like kind of a little, little mullety, just like a nice dash of mullet. Um, yeah, he's fur, a brow furrowed looking at a piece of paper that is supposed to be a makeup exam and he was supposed to have studied and he's pretty sure that he was wandering

around with his friends in the swamp at the time and has no idea what any of this is. And he's just kind of like, wake when wins, when, wake when wins, when, as he's just looking down hopelessly at the test. Yeah, this, uh, this history test was not what you were hoping it would be. There are a lot of questions about dates, a lot of questions about people whose names you have a really hard time pronouncing, uh, the short answer questions seem like the answers should be short, but feel very long. It is not a great test for you to be taking on the last day of, uh, school before break.

Um, and as you're kind of singing to yourself, um, um, Mrs. Elliott, who's kind of put you in a desk, uh, on, or in a desk in the corner of the room facing the wall so you have, so you don't have any distractions, distractions, uh, comes over and kind of taps your shoulder and goes, Henry, uh, are you almost done or do you need a little bit more time? School, there's, there's not that much longer than the day, kid. If I say, if I say I need a little bit more time, does, does that give me any kind of like advantage?

Like, can you like tell me some of the answers if I need to, uh, what, what if I say I don't need more time and we have to leave and then can you tell me the rest of the answers? Yeah. Um, Henry, this is a, this is a test of your knowledge, not mine. I went to school, I did my school already, kiddo. Uh, this is, this is for you. So, and she's, she's still like looking around and trying to keep an eye on her classroom um, roll me a, let me see, let me see, let me see, roll me a charm check.

All right, that's decent. I have one six. One six. Um, she's looking around the classroom and she looks back to you and she sees kind of your empty aunt, like the empty answers or like the, just the scrawlings and your hair and the, like the stress that's clearly on your face. And she, um, she kind of puts a hand on your shoulder and she goes, okay, well, don't forget, lower Egypt and upper Egypt aren't where you think they are.

And the crowns of them reflect that. And she kind of glances at your paper and back up at you. Okay. I really feel like you're trying to help me right now. I give all of my students the assistance I can give them. The rest is up to you. And she kind of pats your shoulder and starts walking away. Thank you.

He furiously writes down exactly what she said verbatim as the short answer of an unrelated question. Uh, yeah, you fight your way through, um, several more questions. Um, and at the point that you think you're going to break your pencil, you're pushing down so hard. The bell rings, signaling the end of school for a week. I did it. Maybe I could stay on the team.

All right. All right. Egypt. Uh, Mrs. Elliott comes over, takes the, the test from you and kind of glances it over, sees the verbatim quote from her. Thank you, Henry. I'll have a grade for you. When we come back, you, um, take care of your mom.

Okay. You give her a hand out there. Oh, always. Yeah. No, come by the diner over the break. We're going to be serving up burgers all day, every day, extra, extra servings. She looks at you and it's, it's a look adults give you a lot. And you can't really decipher it, but you think it's nice.

Um, and then she turns away and starts yelling at students to, to, you know, finish packing up, get their, make their way out of the classroom. Um, and you are all released, uh, to head towards the outside of school. Um, is there a special place that you guys tend to meet up after school or do you all go your own separate directions? Hmm. I think maybe if there's like, it's not like a bike rack, but maybe those, um, you know, the like cul-de-sac, like electrical boxes that God knows what's inside of them.

One of those. The sticker that says do not touch, uh, electrocution is possible has absolutely been picked off by every single one of you at a certain point in your tenure of this school. Um, and slowly the five of you meet Peyton as you were reaching for the door of the front office, the bell ring, the bell ring, you know, it's time to, it's time to, yeah. Uh, and you can see the principal, um, Mrs. Evans, uh, through the little like chicken, like chicken glass, chicken wire glass window, and you make eye contact and she looks at you and raises her eyebrows.

And I blink more. And she, you, you see just a hint of it as you turn away and it's the barest hint of a smile and a shaking of her head as she lets you go. Um, Cheyong, as you are heading toward the, um, electrical box, uh, Mixchella makes their way out of their room and stops you. Uh, Mixchella is a mixed Latin white person. They're a science teacher. Their hair is dyed red on one side, blue on the other in a science experiment that was

done for your class that you don't really know what the experiment was supposed to be. I think they wanted to just dye their hair and thought doing it in front of the students would be fun. It's, it's also the, they're the, uh, protagonist of Fire Emblem Engage, which is. Absolutely. This game that I do not know, I, yes they are. Um, they are kind of hurrying down the hallway with a bunch of like, um, papers in their hand and they see you and they kind of wave you down.

Cheyong, Cheyong. Uh, I hope you're going to check on the swamp this week. Um, the frogs are beginning their hibernation, so I thought it'd be really interesting for you and the other swamp kids. Uh, sorry, the rest of the swamp club, don't agree with you guys calling yourselves the swamp kids, but it's your choice. Um, you can see them kind of making their way down into their little muddy hibernations and I thought that would be really interesting for you.

Um, I would go. No, making their way downtown. That sounds like a song maybe in like the next 20 years or something. You should write that down. My, um, sister-in-law Vanessa is really going like this. Wow, okay. She's a songwriter. I thought you were an only child.

How do you have a sister in law? Well, it's not my, not my sister, like my sister in law, I guess. I don't know, family definitions get weird. Sure, I'm not, I'm not here to judge on that. Cousin. Right. People say words to me and I repeat them to adults. You're doing a great job, kiddo.

I just wanted to make sure you knew that they were getting ready for hibernation. That was really it. Yeah, I know that's like, that's freaking cool. Yeah. Do you think they could like, um, do you think like they're like freeze? And then if you saw them, you could have like activated frogs. Like if you warm them up like inside or something asking for a friend. You can see a look of, do I teach this child actual science

or do I lie to this child to save a frog? Uh, roll me a charm. This is Charm. Which is, I think I believe Hart. Hart. It's okay. I'm not very charming, but I get information from adults reactions very well. Oh, two fives.

Oh. You see, she kind of look, I'm sorry. You see, they kind of look at you for a minute. You know, that is the kind of inquiring mind I love to hear about from my students. I don't think that's an experiment that you should partake in at this particular juncture just because you won't have time. You know, we're, we're doing a lot of work around town. I know that the, the public works buildings need some work.

And the red star is, is looking for help to clear out the freezer. I know you're going to be super busy. So maybe that's something we can revisit next year. Right. Next year. Wink. No, I didn't mean it in a wink kind of way. Look, I know you're wearing a wire and that you have to say these things

because someone's listening, but look, I know tech. It's fine. I get it. It's next, it's a next year sort of thing. Wink. Have a good break, Cheyung. Thank you. And they, you too.

They kind of wander their way back down the hallway. Guys, I figured out a new type of weapon. Is this the first thing you say to the group as you meet up? Oh yeah. I'm like, as I'm like running out, I just figured out a new kind of weapon. Frogs will hibernate when they get really cold and they'll freeze, but then if, I bet if we could just get them and then set them somewhere where they're warmer, then we just, it's like a, it's like a, like an auto plague.

It's like just like in the Bible. We could make, we could be, we could be like the vengeful God that sends a swarm of frogs to Egypt. You were sort of studying Egypt, right? Man, everything's about Egypt today, Cheyung. How, how did you know? I, you know, I just like, I hear things from the mountains. I mean, maybe you're right. I don't know.

I think I got that one wrong actually. But yeah, the plague. Well, I, I don't know if the, was the plague on it. I don't think the plague was on our test because that's like religious lore. And I feel like that's inappropriate for a school setting, but also we are in Montana. So I don't know. Anyway, how's everybody? Did you know it takes 37 steps to get to the principal's office?

From my homeroom? Every time? Every time. Have you not grown since the time you first went to the principal's office? No. I think Radda's going to go up to Deige and like hand them their backpack so that they can unstuff the backpack full of different papers and so that they can start flattening it and then putting it back in a reasonable stack in their bag.

Yeah. Do you have, do you want a folder or are you? No, I had a system, but I was in a rush. It felt, everything fell out of my bag. Yeah. One second. Okay. This starts flattening papers.

Okay. So what's, what, what is this about Egypt and what? So here's the plan. I think we all go down to the creek and we get a bunch of these frozen frogs. Well, nobody told me about this. I figured this out by myself and I'm not going to incriminate anyone. That's cool. Who told me about this very cool weapon that I could make.

Anyway, we take the frogs and we get them all into a pile and we don't have to like take them inside yet because I think they're probably their humidity and like temperature parameters are probably fine outside where they are. But if we can gather them all into one pile and then when we need them all into one pile and then when we need a frog bomb or a from, if we will, we can gather them all and put them in a place where they'll be warmer and then they'll just go ham. I mean, wait, that's not a thing that's been invented. They'll just go, they'll just go ape shit.

Awesome. Just a plant. I mean, like some, I don't know. I've not, I haven't needed a plant. I haven't needed a plant. I haven't needed a plant. I mean, like some, I don't know. I've not, I haven't needed a from yet, but I feel like this is the year that we'll need

a frog. Right. I feel like my concerns about the from is that you can smell a frog a mile away. Right. Who is you? I can't smell a frog from a mile away. What do they smell like? Like smell.

They smell like frogs, but you know, I can't smell one from a mile away. Like specific smell. Or is it like, it's like salty and it's like moldy. What's the longest you've haven't taken a shower for me? I really don't say. Yeah. Okay. That's what's frog smell.

Little, but little and compact. But wait. So are you worried that people who can smell frogs from a mile away will be immune to the from? If they can smell the from, then they'll try to find it. It's like, like those dogs that try to sniff out bombs and stuff. Sure. We have to seal the scent in the from.

You're so right. Just for just to evade detection while they thought, because once they're, once they're thought, then it doesn't matter. They can smell. It's from time. The from has gone off. Okay. I think we'll need a hamster ball or something like that.

Anyway, that this is, this is part of, this is like my first priority after I dig some holes. This break. So like, I'm sure we all have like stuff to do. Anyway, we should probably start walking the Gretas. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I can't be, I can't be late.

We have a lot of orders coming up and I said I'd help extra. Also, I was thinking maybe the from can thought if we want it to in the bread warmer at my home. We're not. No, this is a weapon. If we, if the thawing part is how the weapon happens, it's like a, it's like a bomb made out of frogs. Oh, so we have to bring the bread with us to where we want to use the from.

That's it. Maybe if we wanted to go off really fast, but let's get you to your shift. Okay. I wonder if it's battery powered. Wolf. I think we get a long extension cord. Okay. If it depends on if the place that we want it from, if that has outlets, that's we'll

worry about that later. He just begins to unchain his bike. Yeah. Okay. As the five of you start to unchain your bike or unchain your various methods of transportation, I suppose. There is a familiar trundling of a pickup truck to you, Khadija, and you turn around and see your grandfather, Zelmer, pulling up in front of the school.

I think this is Khadija does the thing that most country children do where they have a much thicker accent around their family than they do anyone else. I feel called out. Continue. Yeah. So they see the pickup truck quickly turn to the rest of the swamp kids and quietly say, Rambo, what are you doing? Hey, kiddo.

Hey. Okay. He is like a kind of stocky, burly black man with like salt and pepper, dark hair, just a little bit of scruff around close crops to his face, red flannel. He's got a similarly colored handkerchief stuffed in his front pocket to the durag that you're wearing. And he's like, kiddo, I just came out of here. I've been sent to bring some supplies to the school.

We're turning their freezer into a stock freezer as well. So we've got two of them now in the city or in the town, but we just got to do some repairs. You have keys to the freezer? Well, I will once Ms. Mary May gives them to me. Oh, could you just going to turn to look at Cheyong really quick? Back to Zell. So are you going to be here for a long time? I mean, where my friends are about to leave?

Well, we'll be, I'll be here for a bit. I was going to, I was going to bring you back home later, but your mom did want me to drop off this for you. And he pulls out a backpack that you guys have used in the past for foraging for like roots and berries and different parts of plants. And he says, I figured, I figured your little swamp club and he kind of waves jovially all the rest of the swamp kids. I thought you all would be going out to the swamp at some point and your mom assumed the

same thing. And we want to make sure we get some of the the cat tails. Oh, what was the list she gave me? God damn it. Hold on. Oh, and he's kind of like patting down his pockets and like looking through everything. And he finally pulls out this like crumpled piece of a paper bag. Oh yeah.

All right. Your mom wants water chestnuts, cat tails, cranberries, ostrich fern and snake eggs. If you can find them. I know it's late in the season, but just on the off chance. Next. So I don't know when you're planning on going to the swamp next, but I wanted you to have this in case you were going right now. I'm not saying you have to go right now.

You and your friends are going to do whatever the hell it is that children do young people enjoy in your lives. Okay. Thank you. Take she wants me to fill this whole backpack. Oh, I mean, it's going to freeze soon. So might as well. Okay.

Yeah. Yeah. You're right. She swings it over her back. I guess. Thank you. And comes in for the hug. Oh, he wraps you up in the like tightest, warmest grandpa hug you can imagine.

And before you can like say anything about your friends being nearby, he gives you like three kisses on the forehead, which is his usual like. Okay. Okay. Affectionate. Goodbye. Oh, yes. I'm so sorry.

You're very cool. We're young person. Thank you. In front of the kids. She just was exclusively to the swap kids. Give a fuck about these other kids. He never remembers the names of your friends as much as he's met them. He always forgets and it's not out of a lack of trying.

He just has other things to think about, but he does recognize them as a swamp kids. And as he pulls like different pipes and gaskets and all sorts of things that he's, you know, like pulled off of all old pieces of equipment, he kind of salutes swamp kids and he makes his way inside. Okay. I think she immediately sprints away from Selmer and back to her friends. So I have something to do now. I have something to do now, but I, uh, man, I don't think I can remember unless I say

it the other way, uh, freezer, I have a way to freeze the from. That's what I'm going to say. Freeze the from, freeze the from. He can't know that and he won't know that. When it's time, we have a way. We got to get you to work, to work. Are you guys coming by later? I'm coming now.

I have delivered. Oh, great. Well, I mean, just so you know, my mom's probably going to try to put everyone to work. Give them a job, you know, so if that's not your vibe, you might want to hide in the back or come in through the back. If I work, do I get to eat burgers? Well, I think you get to eat them regardless, but maybe you could eat more because when I work, I'm like around them more.

So I get to eat them more. That makes sense. That's how jobs work. Yeah. All right. If I get to eat more burgers because I'm working, that's fine. Yeah. The only problem is if you eat someone's order right when they need to eat it themselves

and then it takes longer to cook another one. So you just have to time it. Here's a secret. You could just give them the order that you made for them and then you cook one for yourself. Oh, I've been doing it backwards. It's an easy mistake to make. You're so smart. You just stop them.

The five of you. You just do that if you know you know it. The five of you ride through town on your various kid modes of transportation and arrive at Greta's Grub. It's kind of at the top of the main street, pretty close to the school, so it doesn't take you too long to get there. And as you push open the doorway for the first time in recent memory, it's empty. What is happening?

Where's your mom? Is it open today? Oh, yeah. No, we're gearing up big for the break. Mom, he kind of steps in looking around with the look of someone that maybe there's like a surprise party happening and then you hear him whispering to himself, is it my birthday? No. Guys, it's not my birthday.

Mom? As you call out a second time, the door, the middle door to the back kitchen swings open and Greta comes out with five plates lining her arms and she goes, oh, kids, come in, come in. Sit, sit, sit. You, as you notice, she's got all of your favorite meals on these five plates. And she kind of sets them down slowly as you each take your seat. I closed for just a couple hours.

I wanted to get a head start on prepping for tomorrow. Peyton, are you still coming by to help me run these meals out? Yep, yep. Sure, thanks. Oh, thanks sweetheart. Rada, here's yours. I put a little extra cheese on the side for Rugsby. Thank you.

Is that okay? That's great. Thank you. Okay. And she kind of pats your head. Deej, yours is extra rare. I did cook it a little bit longer than you usually like just because, honey, I'm worried that you're going to get some kind of food poisoning.

No, I am familiar with the FDA at this point. Okay, all right. Cheyong, I don't have that many vegetables that I can spare today for Samus, but I did put a little extra bread on there. Do Tara's stores eat that? If you have bugs, she eats bugs. Bugs. I don't, I'm fresh out of those, kiddo.

I'm sorry. Maybe you can look around outside. That's fine. Well, as long as, can I get some more hot sauce? Oh, yes, of course. On the side? Please, sorry. Thank you.

Henry, she comes and she kisses your forehead a couple of times. She goes, oh, kiddo, I'm so proud you've made it through the first part of the school year. You're doing great. Yeah, great. That's what I'm doing. That's what they tell me at school all the time, mom. Oh, honey, I'm so proud of you.

You're working so hard. You're doing so much. I really appreciate your help. I did this partially so I could have a break to prep, but also so you can have fun with your friends for like, you can have like a night before I know we're going to be really, really busy for the rest of the week. And you're going to see your friends, of course, but I wanted to make sure you had time to celebrate a little bit.

It's, it's, you know, a season is ending and a new season is starting and she's, mom, no, she's still football season. I meant a season of the year, sweet pea. Oh, right. Yeah, we're getting close to winter. Remember, it's getting colder. Winter, spring, summer, fall, football. Long ago.

I'm sorry. That sounds familiar from the future too. But as Noah starts bleeding as she totters back, no, she goes back in the back. She grabs you some hot sauce. She brings it to the table. If you kids need anything else, I'm going to be in the back. Have fun tonight. Okay.

I'm very serious. Have fun. Tomorrow's for working. Tonight is for fun. Thanks mom. Okay. We promise we won't do anything productive. That's good to hear, Deige.

And she makes her way back into the kitchen and you hear her kind of like singing quietly to herself as she, as she chops vegetables, as she moves like crates around and like takes like stock of all of the food that's left in there right now, just prepping for the week that's to come. Just go and grab Rada straight out of the shirt. It's just, it's just, it's just, oh my gosh. Have you been in there the whole time and I'm just like giving pets? It's warmer in there because it's so cold outside.

Would you like to give them some cheese? Yes. I'm just like full leaning over the table to do so like, I got to halfway step outside and just like whistle and there's like a shadow that like crosses my face from above and you just like see this like, it's a, it's a type of pterosaur. It's a, it's like sort of like dog sized, I would say like, you know, medium dog sized with sort of like those wings that kind of fold up as in walks on all fours as she goes around.

Her name is Samus and I think the specific prehistoric reptile thing that I picked is I think it's agnorothonidae or something like that. And she's just, she's a good girl, I named her Samus after Samus, of course, obviously. So she's pretty new and like, because my parents aren't around a lot, so they let me have this and then also Greta let me, let's me bring her inside, which is like, we know about the FDA, so like that's like not, it is a problem, but I don't care as a child. I know about the FDA from Deej, obviously, but yeah, so I sort of like whistle and swoops inside and I'm just tossing scraps and whatever and she's hopping around onto the empty booths

and like finding a place to like curl up and yeah, this is normal by this point because she's always around. Peyton looks over at everyone. So do you know how Dalton broke his arm? Because I almost broke his other one. Oh, I thought you did the first one. No. Is that what people are saying?

By people, if you mean me, yes, I've been, I've been starting that rumor. Actually you told me that. That's where I heard it, actually. Yeah, that's where she at. But it's also probably a monster, right? That's what some people were saying. People were saying like legit people in my class were like, oh my god, it like snapped, snapped, like, like a sound.

Someone was like, I heard it. Oh, I guess that's, I mean, there's a lot of ways to break your arm in the forest, but you probably used to sell. I don't know, he falls in football a lot and he's never broken his arm like that. Is he, I don't know, maybe he like tried to bully a bear and he would, you know, like he's pretty like, just aggro all the time. Yeah, it's weird that he's not telling people how it happened. So I think it is something embarrassing like trying to bully a bear.

Yeah, but you know how we can find out for sure. Is we do a little recon of our own, but we just be careful because he's probably, I mean, like if he had a single thought in his head ever, like I would be shocked. So if we just think about it for a second, we probably be fine. It's probably just like some kind of animal that he pissed off real bad. So you all continue your your snackage. You enjoy your time. School let out at about two forty five or three.

So you have a good three to four hours before the sun starts to set. It's the sun's a little watery today through the clouds. But it's it's sunny still. You know that some kind of fronts coming through in the next few days. So everyone's in a little bit of a tizzy about at least stuff that deals with the ground, making sure you're making sure it's not frozen. So you guys have the run of the town, you can go where you please. Where where's where are my SWAT kids heading off to?

Well, were we going to go like figure out like how were we going to go spy on Delta or were we going to build like a frog bomb? That's right. I think the from can come later because they have to be frozen first. Like they're going to be frozen by the winter. And so we can go gather them after the front comes through. But for tonight, maybe we like try to figure out what happened to Dalton, because that seems like Dalton like that kind of catches us.

And he's going to be real mean about it. Yeah, but like also it'll probably get dark. And then he only has one good arm now, so it's not. And I heard Peyton broke it. So I'm starting to believe that's what I heard. I don't know. I mean, I haven't I haven't asked Brian and Peter yet. And they kind of hang out with Dalton and they're on the team.

So I don't know. Maybe they'll have a they haven't. They're not exactly the nicest, but I could ask. You could ask them while we like get some supplies like we all get some flashlights and stuff like I bet he I bet he went out there without even a flashlight. What a frickin fricco. I mean, yeah, looking for supplies to go into the woods.

We can just go to my house. Like, I mean, hell, yeah, I love your house. It's so weird. Thanks, dude. My house is so normal. It's like it's painful. Like there's it's like I I've heard my parents talk about eggshell versus matte white finish for hours.

And I hate it. Yeah. You have cool animal heads on your wall. Yeah, my grandpa's thinking about putting a gun wall by the door. You know how you put your coats and your hands up and stuff. You just kind of hang up your gun so it's easy. Just on the way in. Just hang up your gun right on the way in. We're thinking about it.

Yeah, you don't want to track the grease into the house. Exactly. Why it's a gun in the dining room? That's just inappropriate. I like this plan. Is anyone cool enough with the other those dudes to go with HP or or is like, I'll definitely go. Oh, yeah, maybe you could be like intimidation.

So if they don't want to talk to me, then you just, you know, crack your knuckles and break his other arm. Yeah, sounds fun. I mean, your mom said have fun. I don't know how else to do that. Do you think you y'all could try to find those boys without Dalton, like just to get some real information? They stick kind of close, but I mean, maybe I could track them down.

They kind of skulk, you know, like Dalton's around and they're like, you know, maybe like good word. Thanks. Yeah, no, I've been practicing on the back of the cereal box. And I don't know. I feel like there's a really advanced theme going on on the cheerios. I think that you can crack it. I think it's that I think there's this thing I heard about called an ARG. I think the cheerios box has an ARG on it.

Yeah, I don't those letters aren't they don't go together in the alphabet, though. Cheyong, so. Well, what do they make? What sound do they make? Yeah. And that's the sound you make when you're frustrated with the puzzle, right? He nods and takes a big bite of his hamburger and just says, and then bites into it. I never know what I'm saying when I'm talking to HP, but I don't like,

I always try to go along with it, you know, and then like, because there's like a logic to it. And I'm like, you know what, this is kind of like learning a new language. I'm I'm learning how to speak jock because I'm a computer geek. I'm like this, I guess all jocks are like this. I just they're just incomprehensible to me. Just assume it's like a jock thing and not like an HP thing. Yeah, he's a special breed.

I'm just like, yeah, people, I guess people are really different. I don't know, but we can, we're still friends. Like we can still hang out with we like I'm like learning a new leg. You know, it's like becoming bilingual as like someone, someone you care about speaks that language. You learn that language. Exactly. I feel like HP is doing the same as Cheyong is, you know, continuing to talk.

He's just like showering down on his hamburger and he's looking his fingers and nodding and just making just incomprehensible, gargling sounds as he and I'm explaining what an ARG is in real detail. So it's the alternate reality game and then it'll just you guys finish your meals. HB is educated on what an ARG is and you exit Greta's grub out onto the street. And am I correct in understanding that HB and Payton are going to try

and find Brian and Peter and the other three are going to Deja's house? Yes. Correct. And before we before we split ways, I just kind of like glance over at Rada and I just say, who did that? What? Who did that? And I just point to your face. Oh, I've got nobody I fell in class the other day. It's fine.

Was it any of the three people I'm about to go see? No. You promise? I promise. OK. And there's like a little squint and then I turn to to follow Henry. HB will pop his head in the back really quick before he leaves.

Mom, we're going we're going to go talk to some of the guys from football and I'll be here early tomorrow. I'm going to have fun, but I'm not. You know, I'm still going to help. Like I said, I would help and I want to help. I really like the diner, mom. I know you do. I know you do. But there's more to the world than just the diner, sweetheart.

No, no, I I I really like it, mom. I'll be here tomorrow. OK, get out. Do you need any extra snacks to take? Oh, yeah, I only ate one burger. Hang on. Payton, you want anything extra? He says over his shoulder.

Oh, yeah, we're we're hungry, mom. We're going to take some snacks for the road. Loading up a styrofoam like absolutely. Grabbing just like a hot meat off the griddle like. Hang on. Careful. I use the spatula. I don't know why I tell you. OK, have fun.

My mom. Sling some of the burgers in his bag. The grease is just dripping through the bottom through the patches. Let's go. OK. Deja's house is a little bit outside of town, so the three of you are traveling for a little bit.

But HB and Payton, you know that the the three lads you're looking for like to hang out behind the market because Peter's grandfather has been running the market for the last X number of years. No one's really sure how long, but Elfman's Goods has been his for a damn long time.

And that's usually where they hang out. And it's just Caddy Corner from Greta's Grubb, so you head over that way. And as you get into the back parking lot, you can see the the storeroom is propped open and you can hear Dalton kind of barking at Brian to to to grab him another cream soda off the shelf.

How do you want to go about? How do you want to go about this? I just skate into view. I think HB was about to be like, OK, so we're going to sneak in, right? And you're gone. Oh, OK, she's gone. And just like follows your skating figure swivels.

And as you come into view, Dalton is sitting like a shitty little king on a shitty little pile of canned goods. And he's kind of leaned back and you see him pull himself forward and wince a little bit. And there's there's a little bit of pride in your soul that you're the reason for that wince. And he pulls himself up and he goes,

forget the forget the cream soda. There's some losers outside. Come on. And he starts lumbering his way outside and Peter and Brian appear behind him pretty quickly. Peter and Brian are not as big and not as wide as Dalton is. They're kind of they're kind of like those those fish that hang on to sharks

and just catch the catch the extras that the shark leaves behind or the gunk off of the shark's skin. And they're trying to like saunter out as imposing as they can. But they just look like rats. And Dalton stops in front of you and goes, you're for a real fight? How's your face?

My face is fine, but yours is about to be. You haven't seen a mirror lately, have you? Yeah. What? Hold on. No, I've had like five girlfriends. You know I'm hot. No. You wish you you just wish, don't you? You just wish you could like make out with me.

That's why you're such a little shit. Wow, I'm learning a lot about you right now. I know it. I'm learning a whole lot. Henry, please talk. Uh, I can't learn anymore today. I did a lot of learning at school, so I'm not going to learn anything.

But what I already know is that we need to know things that Peter and Brian know, so we need to talk to them. That's why we're here, right? He says looking at Peyton imploringly. Absolutely. Yeah, and no one wants to date anyone. I don't think. Dalton kind of looks down at you.

Well, you can ask him whatever the fuck you want to ask him. I'm not going anywhere. I think we're, you're supposed to ask him by themselves. It's kind of a special thing like a surprise party. It's not my birthday, though. It's like a football thing for those not on the bench. He's going to swing at you. Would it, would, um, would I intuit that or am I like,

I don't know how I can tell from my stats if I'm like, I know I'm not smart, but am I like physically smart? Roll, hmm, you can either roll empathize or roll move. I'll do move. That is five, eight. Yeah. That is two sixes. Incredible.

You know Dalton pretty damn well, especially, this is going to sound weird. His physical mannerisms know them pretty well. And you can see all the muscles kind of tensing in his back and the way his fists is starting to curl. And you can do pretty much whatever you want to either hinder this attack or change his trajectory. And you can also buy an effect with your extra success if you would like to.

Oh, and is that a condition or just an effect in general? It's just an effect in general. It's kind of what you like, you can, you can say how you succeed and then a little bit of an extra like, what is it that puts a stop to this brawl in potential? Okay, I think HB would step in front of Peyton just as a block, just from his football training to kind of absorb the blow because it seems like a punch to the face.

It's not not a good situation for Peyton. And for an extra, I don't know if this is silly, but maybe like a side-long ability to say something to either Peter or Brian, just like, hey, need us around the back. Like as he's like getting pummeled in the chest, like kind of like a, I don't know, a coughing aside or something comical. Yeah, so you, you step forward and where it would have hit Peyton's square in the face, it kind of hits you in the peck.

And it doesn't feel good, but it's nowhere near what like a, a hit to the face would have been for her. And you kind of say this side-long out of the side of your mouth. So you say side-long out of the side of your mouth, meet us around the corner. Yeah, it's more of, it's like a cough. Like I like do some like very dramatic spittle and like, and then I flex my left pectoral where I assume I was hit. Yes, you flexed your left pectoral, you cough out this instruction.

And Dalton looks embarrassed that he's hit a teammate. He doesn't have a lot of respect for a lot of boundaries or a lot of relationships, but he does respect the team. The, the winds are, they're untouchable for him. So he hits you and he kind of looks at you and it's almost a look of betrayal that you've put yourself in front of his fist to stop him from hitting your friend. I don't know when you got so fucking weird. And he just kind of like huffs and storms off in the other direction.

HB processes this for a second and you can tell he's a little hurt, but then it looks back at Peyton and see the friend. Like no filter there at all and just nods. Hey, are you okay? Yeah, thanks. You didn't have to do that though. Yeah, I know. I mean, it just, I would have felt bad if I just watched you get hit and didn't do anything.

So, Brian and Peter are still kind of standing off to the side and they look a little torn between going after Dalton and listening to their other teammate. And they don't really want to go after Dalton when he's in a mood like this because he's, he'll take it out on them. And he, and he, they don't really want to deal with that right now. So they're kind of hanging between, in the like in between as Dalton kind of goes off and sulk around the side of the general store and you're not really sure where he's gone after this. I think we can talk to them if we still want to find out about Dalton's arm.

He's kind of an asshole, isn't he? He's very much so, yes. Sorry. Why are you sorry? He's my teammate. I kind of feel stuck in the middle. I don't see you that way. Thanks.

Well, let's, let's see how Brian and Brian and Peter feel. They're going to have, just as he pauses, nuanced thoughts about me, I'm sure. That was on Cheerios last week. No words, just like puts like an arm around, around Henry goes towards our two friends. Hey fellas, he says posturing kind of like a peacock. What's up? Does the Danny Zuka walk up? There you go.

Oh, stop, man. Yeah, uh, how's it going? You know, just doing a little punch and fighting, you know, how it is. Yeah, man, you can take a hit. Yeah. It's cool, man. Yeah. You're a good, you're a good bro.

They're kind of, they're kind of ignoring Peyton and kind of just like side eyeing her, but like, let, like letting the Henry of it all kind of gloss over whatever is going on here. So, uh, you know, Don's arm looks a little broken. What's up with that? I heard Peyton did it, but then that wasn't true. They kind of look at Peyton and they look at you and they look at Peyton again and they're like, nah, that little puny thing. Nah, nah, nah, it takes, it takes more than, than like some kid to like break our guy's arm.

You know, like he's our, he's our guy. And like that kid, no, and they're just kind of trying to like protect his honor, even though they don't care about it that much. Uh, yeah, man, it's broken. I mean, he, uh, he said he broke it in the woods. So rough go for the winds this season. Yeah, yeah, no, totally. Did he say like, uh, what happened?

Roll me an empathize. Both of you actually can roll me an empathize. It's five. Nope, nothing. Okay. I got one success. Uh, you catch this Peyton, uh, I think HB, you're a little bit like still caught up in the like trying to posture and like be the football dude that they expect you to be.

But Peyton, as you're watching, you see Peter cut his eyes over at Brian and there's just like a little bit of a look of like, don't fucking say anything dude. Um, but it's, it's, it's pretty quick and they, and they cover it with like, man, I don't know. Like he was probably doing something fucking badass, like climbing a tree here, like trying to flip his BMX bike or whatever. You know, you know how that guy is. Yeah, totally.

Yeah, what, what stuff can get hardcore? Yeah. Well, Peyton, I think that's, that's all I know. I mean, like I, I know a look of when someone is done knowing things. And that, and that's, that's look I have in the mirror a lot. Um, and they're, they don't know Peyton. They don't know. Wait, so you're telling me you weren't with him when it happened?

You're always with him. What? He was doing cool stuff and he didn't want you there. Oh, well, man, you know, sometimes we don't like, you know, what happens when we always touch the, wow, that's okay. You know, sometimes, sometimes he's facing us out. Oh, mm. Peter starts to like, like try and calm down Brian and he's like, but Brian is getting really like spun up about it.

He goes, no man, we saw, we saw what he did. It was fucking cool. It was fucking excellent. Yeah, I don't, I don't. It was, it was a BMX tree thing, man. A BMX tree thing. Explain to me how that works. You know, yeah, because you weren't there and you didn't see it.

Hmm. Man, that really sucks for you. I did see it. It was fucking rad. It was crazy. I mean, Peter is like holding on Brian now. It was a monster and Brian kind of blurts it out and Peter socks him in the shoulder. Dude, really? They didn't think we saw it.

We totally saw it, right? Yeah, right. Yeah, what did it look like? Peter kind of like takes a deep breath and runs his hand through his buzz cut hair. I don't know. You know, it was like, it was dark and we were coming back. We were foraging in the woods for certain plants. Uh, but, uh, I don't know.

We were walking back and he was like, you know, he was razzing us. He was like punching us and shit. And then this thing came out of fucking nowhere. And it was like, it was like fucking big. And it had eyes that were like bright white, but it had this red thing in its chest. And it made this like, and he tries to make this noise that you don't really recognize. And you're not sure if it's supposed to be mechanical. You're not supposed to be biological, but he makes this noise and it sounds like

almost like retching, but, but like mechanical. It's an arc. Buddy, is it an arc? What the fuck's an arc, man? I don't know. It wasn't like that. I just learned about this. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was kind of, it was kind of like that.

Yeah. And they're both getting like, make it again. That's what it, that's what Cheyong was doing. Yeah. Does Cheyong know about the fucking, the fucking monster? Cheyong knows about everything. Fuck, man. Everything.

If doll knows what she knows about the monster, it weren't. If doll knows they know about the monster, we're fucked, man. Well, don't, don't, don't fucking say anything. No, we're not going to tell anyone. I mean, like the arc, arc is, it's kind of, it's hard to explain. It takes a long time and you can eat like three hamburgers when you learn about it. So don't worry about it. Fuck.

We'll keep it a secret. All right, yeah. Just, you know, don't, don't tell anyone we told you or whatever. Dalton didn't want anyone to know that like a fucking monster was after. Yeah. No, no, no, no. No, you're, you're secret safe with us. Yeah, our secret. And Peter kind of gives you a look.

Peyton's, Peyton's cool. Come on, man. Yeah, whatever. Hey, one more, one more quick, just super quick question. What? Do you know what happened to Radda's face? Radda, that like weirdo with the rat thing? Yeah.

Uh, yeah, I think, I think like, who was it? And they're kind of like looking back and forth between each other. It was one of those drum kids, those little drum weirdos, like picked up a book and was like swinging it around. I don't know. I don't really, I wasn't really paying that much attention, but I think it was Axl. Cool. Thanks.

And they kind of squint down at you for a second and then from around the corner, they hear, where are my guys? Where are my fucking guys? And they kind of jump like, like scared puppies and start kind of running back to follow where Dalton, where Dalton left. And they, they look back at you one last time and go, and then they, they go and they make a little like whirlwind with their finger, which is like the move for the winds.

Go winds! Go winds, go winds. And they, and they disappear around the corner. I think HB would close out this scene by kind of squaring up with Peyton and just like full broad shoulder, like football mode activated to be fully physically present. But like serious look at her and say, hey, I know you can take care of yourself. If I can take a punch for you, I always will. But I know you're probably going to go after the band kids.

And I respect that. And I'm not going to get mixed up in that. Thanks, Henry. You're a good friend. Come on. Thanks. I kind of feel like I'm on two teams now. You know, it's weird.

Yeah. I mean, that can kind of suck sometimes. So I'm sorry, but you feel a little split, but I don't know. You're a good guy. Thanks Peyton. You're cool too. He just gives you a huge whack on the shoulder just as full force as you would with any of the football guys. All right.

Yeah, let's, let's get back, huh? Yeah. Can't believe Arx a thing. Oh man, I just learned about that. We cut away from this beautiful moment of friendship and go to some other friends. Khadija, Radda, and Cheyong are coming up on Dija's house unless there's anything you guys wanted to discuss on your ride over. I think I would have been like to Radda. I would have been like, that was with you and Peyton.

With you and Peyton? Like, is there, I don't know. I don't want to like, that was just like, I don't know. If someone had talked that way to me, I would be like totally in love with them. So I don't know. Like, that was just, I don't know. From the outside, I was super, I don't know. Radda is just turning red and not able to just like looking away.

Like, I look over at, I try to make eye contact with Dija just like fanning myself. I think the way that Dija was not even aware. No, Peyton would do that for any one of you guys. So I don't know what you're talking about. That's dumb, dumb situation. I mean, sure, but like, but she did it for you. And it was like, I mean, that was. It doesn't mean that it's fine.

It's fine. It's just fine. Okay. Okay. I just, you know, I think I like, like actually like a stick on the bike. And I like, this is like awkward. Oh, it's fine. It's fine.

I think champs on like roller skates, like the, not like the blades, but like the, with the four and then like, I'm just like trying to keep up. But also like, as I'm teasing, I'm like skating backwards. Like kind of like, I don't know. And it's like focused on the road in front of them, just pedaling. Yeah. I'll leave it alone until we get to Dija's house. Okay.

You guys roll up on Dija's house. Zakiya, do you want to describe what Cadija's house looks like? And the family that we may find within its walls? Yes. Yes. The Mitchell household is mostly a bunker that the city then said, hey, you can't just live in a bunker. So they built a house on top of it.

It is very small from the street. It's maybe a living room in a kitchen and then everything else. And that's like very, very small, probably not the one that they use. Everything else is underground. It's her bedroom, her parents' bedroom. And I think off to the side is something that was probably supposed to be a pantry, but it is where her grandfather, Selma, lives. There is a, it's a mess, but it's all very, very organized.

So there's those huge, like, I can only recognize them as those vats that you dissolve bodies in. That's a different thing. But those big blue, like, guys, it's a lot of those that are filled with something. A lot of like firewood, just like different supplies stacked on top of each other that are sort of like, surrounding this house and camouflaging it. I'm trying to think if it's just after school, there wouldn't be a whole lot of people home, especially if Selma is also at the school.

Maybe Khadija's mother is there. So you open the door to the house, and everyone knows to go down to the bunker. And as you make your way down, you hear your mother saying, Khadija, is that you? Oh, yeah, it's me. I have friends too. Rad is here and Chae's here. Oh, good. All right, you'll come on down.

I'm just, well, be careful. I've laid out a couple of the traps just to check them. So watch where you're setting your feet, all right? Inside? Well, it looked like it was going to rain earlier. I didn't want it to rust. So then, you know, the clouds moved, and now no one was home. All right?

That's smart. I know it's been a rain pattern in the sky for a few days. I shouldn't remember. I mean, it's not the first time we've had two of these traps in the house. I know. I know. But I just want to make sure. I do not want to explain to one of my parents how you got hurt like this.

No, I'm saying I appreciate it. It's just it's like it's not the first time. So it's not like you don't have to. I'm reminding Rad and not to leave my shirt. See if you stay inside. The inside, inside. I think I think I'm going to try to have Samus like perch on my shoulders. But she's pretty large.

I think she's light enough. But it's like I'm also like just hunched over because it is still pretty heavy. It's like. Oh, sweetheart. Come here. And Makita reaches over and kind of scoops. She's like a she's a strong woman. So she just kind of scoops Samus off your shoulders and sets her on a on like a like a coffee table.

Oh, all right. Weird. Stay, stay. What are you doing home? I thought I sent you off to get some to do some collecting, you know, we're we're going to maybe just needed some some supplies in case we are out too long, just regular supplies like flashlight, you know, hunting knife, flare, umbrella, tent, sleepover, sort of sleeping bag like winter sleeping bag, not like the summer one.

Right, right, right. Stuff like that. Are you planning on being out that late? No, emergencies. Good. That's my girl. That's my girl. She kind of passed your cheek.

Well, you know where everything is. Let me know what you take just so I can mark it off on our on our checklist. And you can see that there's like this what would be in modern day an Excel spreadsheet, but is currently just like graph paper with like very dark delineations of everything. And it lists all of the supplies that the Mitchell's have in their bunker. And she kind of motions over to it. Don't forget, take all that, you know, mark off all your stuff. Zalmer's already your grandfather's already marked off your your forward and back.

So that doesn't need to be marked off at everything else that you take. Make sure it's marked. All right. Gotcha. Gotcha. I'll bring you back this time. That's my girl. And she starts to take three of everything.

I think maybe, yeah, honestly, I think she turns to her friends and has a pile of a weekend's worth of camping supplies. So if you guys want to take out your hiking bags, we can sort of just gear up before we go. Yeah, sure. I just have my backpack. I didn't think I needed a hiking bag. Oh, sweetheart, we have an extra one. It's OK.

And Makita reaches up onto like a high shelf and pulls down a bag that looks like it's been through an apocalypse already. How does it smell that way? It kind of holds it out to you. It's got a little smell on it. Well, yeah, honey, we put dead rabbits in it. Oh, it's clean. We sanitize everything, of course.

Of course. It's not a problem. Again, trust me, it's not a problem until you leave the blood in there to the next day, because I've forgotten to do that a few times. And it is. Yes, you have. The worst. But under 24 hours, free to go.

You learn real quick. Good to know. Thank you. I'm just like looking in the inside of this bag. It's there are a couple questionable stains, but they don't look like they're they look old. They look real old, so they're not fresh. I'll just hold it out for for Deej to start filling it with supplies.

Yeah, real like 10. Yeah, whatever goes in here goes. I mean, you know better than I do. Tetris dad level packing. She's done this 100 times. OK, great. We should be back. It's it's like four o'clock now, right?

Yeah, I'd say like 3454 at the latest. OK, then she's like, yeah, we'll be back before sundown with the shit on her back. All right. Well, you know, watch out for bears, bobcats. Do you want? No, that's a foolish thing. That's not a thing to do. My mother instincts are taking over before my survival instincts.

I'm very proud of myself. No, no, what? You have to share it now. I was going to ask if you wanted a rifle just in case you come across a bear. Yes. Yes. How else am I supposed to safely pick anything from the list that you gave grandpa? Hello.

I'm behind Deej to to the mother going. We do just like no motioning. No, we do not need a gun out on this range. But as if it's behind Deej, I'm like trying to convince Deej's mom to not give us a gun. Akita is like looking over your shoulder at something and then looking back at you. And she kind of closes her eyes and pushes pushes her glasses up her reading glasses up on her forehead. And she goes, all right, how about we compromise?

You can take the slingshot. Oh, not even like a just a little little pistol. Just a small BB gun. Yes. Yes. All right. Take the baby. Let's what about an extra signal flare gun?

Um, hey, no, I think Zelmer used that last month trying to scare off a cougar. That needs to go on my list. And so she starts like writing on her list of things like there's a there's a very wrong. They have cougars at Red Star. What did you say? I'm sorry. I said I heard they have cougars at Red Star. So he had to fight one off at the bar.

Too young. Too young. What? No, that's what I heard someone say. Oh, sweet. I don't I don't say things to me. And then I just repeat that. Oh, baby, like different kinds of cougars.

Maybe these are things that adults say to me. Okay. And I don't I don't know what they mean. So I just repeat them because it seems like it. Anytime I repeat something an adult says to me and I don't know what it means. A different adult goes. Oh, and I go. Okay.

All right. All right. Here's the here's the deal, honey. Uh, sometimes, oh man, am I supposed to be teaching you this? Yeah. Yeah, you'll learn eventually. All right. Sometimes older women lack going after younger men.

There's nothing wrong with it. As he's happening, Khadija puts a gun in her back. Go ahead. Are you trying to sneak a real gun? No, no, no, I'm putting the BB gun in my bag. Okay. I was going to say if you want to try and stick a BB gun, we could try that. But if you're taking the BB gun, you don't have to roll for it.

Oh, God. Uh, and so, uh, Makita's like, well, honey, uh, there's nothing wrong with older women going after younger men. Older men go after younger men all the time and no one talks about it. But as soon as an older woman's going after a younger man who is old enough to be of age and consenting and it's all leaked and legally, it's fine. You know, they make a name for it and they call it a cougar. And that's what, that's what they're saying.

If they say there's cougars at the bar, that's what they mean. Unless they're talking about mountain lions or pumas. In which case, get the fuck out of there. It seems like there's a lot to this whole thing. That was a lot of information. It seems like there's like a whole political history of this that I'm like not fully conscious of because I'm 13. Yeah.

Just know it just seems, that's cool though. I mean, or not cool. Anyway, yeah. So I'm gonna, I'm gonna go to, uh, Rada be like, is this a cougar situation since, since Peyton's older than you and. What? Well, thank you, mom. We're going to go ahead and go.

Thank you. This is fine. These are things that I don't say to you. You have to stop. You have to stop saying that. We, I just, I'm not ready to talk about this around my mom. So we can, we can do this outside. Okay, that's fine.

As long as they can keep talking about it. Yeah. All right. I love you. Be safe. Listen to the nature. Listen to yourself. Listen to your gut.

Listen to your heart. Listen to your mind. Listen to your friends. Listen to your ancestors. You got it? Of course. Of course. All right.

There's some jerky on the way out. Grab it. I love you. I will see you tonight. And if I don't, I will not worry until. 3 p.m. tomorrow. Reasonable. I trust you.

Okay. Love you. Love you for the backpack. Oh, of course, darling. You be safe out there. She grabs the jerky on the way out. And as the four, the five of you, I'm sorry, come out of your respective scenes. We're going to end our session there as you journey into the forest

and find out what the fuck attacked Dalton. That's the end of our first session. Thank you guys for playing so much. Before we close out, I would love to give our wonderful, wonderful guest players a chance to tell everyone where to find them, what they're working on, all that kind of stuff, anything you want to plug. Now is the time. We'll start in the same order we went as earlier.

I only remember Allison went first. And then Carrie and Lex, you'll have to fight it out. Oh, goodness. Yay, that was so much fun. Thank you so much for running. And yay, I'm so excited we get to play this some more. So yay. I'm Allison.

I'm insight checked on the internet. You can find me on Twitch, Twitter, YouTube, probably some other places. I run actual plays on my channel. We do first Fridays every month. It's a charity stream, different GM, different system, a lot of chaos. So come check that out. And yeah, the only project that's really around the corner for me is a thing called Story Crafters, where it's a collab with my friend Detect Magic.

And we bring together the worlds of crafts and TTRPGs. So if you know one, but want to learn the other, that's what we do. We do two streams on that. We're going to be doing, this is the first time I'm talking about this. It's super rusty. We'll be playing The Witch is Dead. And we will be doing, oh gosh, what is that called? Polymer clay figures of our little animal familiars.

So very excited about that. Oh, that's so cool. Yeah, so if you're interested, I'll be posting a sign up link soon. Amazing. Thank you so much for your time, Carrie and or Lex. Carrie's finger going at you. Let's go. I'm Lex, also known as Titanomica RPG.

You can find all my stuff at titanrpg.com. It has all my links to my Twitter and itch.io page. I'm a game designer. You could make a game yourself, a TTRPG yourself, tonight before you go to sleep. You could be a game designer with couch reports free. It's open license, all D4s, and I got other systems too. So go check that out. They're free.

And yeah, I'm so excited to keep playing. Amazing. And finally, Carrie, do you have anything you want to plug out there? Sure. I am Carrie Smith of Crossroads Games. We make actual plays of all sorts with high production values, I guess you could say, and absolutely top tier role play, including a lot of these lovely faces that you see right here on this very screen.

And you can find us at youtube.com slash crossroads games. We have a premiere usually twice a week, but definitely every Wednesday at 6 p.m. Central. So it's always something new. It's very exciting. Incredible. Zach, Eli, anything you guys want to drop that is un-mayday related, I guess. Yeah, everyone's going to drop things if they feel like it. Or if you don't want to, that's just it.

That I can think of? Oh, there's a Southern Gothic campaign that's on Qtimes that I met with some cool people that I play pretend within the woods. Check it out. That's it. Eli, anything from you? No, nothing recent. I recently was in a couple of charity streams and stuff like that.

But other than that, yeah. Well, we will leave you here, swamp friends. And join us next time for episode two. Thank you so much for walking, fah, watching. I almost made it. I almost made it. Everyone take care of yourselves and have a lovely rest of your day. Bye.