Transcript: Season 3 Episode 65: It Comes

A Knight of Shreds and Patches Transcript  

Season 3 Episode 65: It Comes

Transcript by Cameron Robertson

Intro:  

[hurdy gurdy music begins]

Nick: Welcome, listeners, to A Knight of Shreds and Patches. An immersive actual play podcast. This episode features the talents of –

Penn:  Penn Van Batavia as Marathon Messenger and Gwendolyn Rozenthall.

Kit: Kit Adames as Birdie Foundling and Vaus Foundling.

Cameron: Cameron Robertson as Emma Blackwood and Janus Foundling.

Sydney: Sydney Whittington as Cassidy Shard and Winifred Foundling.

Nick: Nick Robertson as GM and Narrator.

Sydney: Hello listeners, this is your editor, Sydney, with today’s messages:

[bro voice voice] Bro, do you ever like, think about how we got here, like, to this place in the universe? Or like, what you wanna get at Taco Bell later? Or like, how tasteful the color and placement choices Piet Mondrian made in his 1930 work Composition II in Red, Blue, and Yellow were? Nah, yeah bro, me neither. [/bro] Whoa, sorry, I must have tuned into existential bro radio and not Editor Sydney intro radio. Anyway. I doubt there’s too much more bro action there, but if you consider backing our Patreon, there is definitely some more art commentary buried amidst the bonus episodes, campfire conversations, and other fun rewards.

And with that, we wrap up today’s announcements and head into Season 3, Episode 65: It Comes. And so…

“Join us, for now our tale to yours attaches

To carry hope: a Knight of Shreds and Patches.”

[hurdy gurdy music ends]

[electronic beeping]  

[robotic powerup noise begins]  

Distorted Robotic Voice: Power restored. Systems online. Reconfiguring audio connection.  

[robotic powerup noise fades to radio frequency static]

[over radio]  

Cameron (as Emma):  Last time on a Knight of Shreds and Patches, Winifred came over to our new garage to help me do the dive into the Knight with the trophy to hopefully kick the evil hitchhiking AI out. I went into the system and had Winifred provide guidance from the outside cause I want to know how to do this specifically in the Knight in case we ever need to in the future, and also I feel like I just know the Knight? Beyond my ask for support on the Ramp when I was trying to get everything shut down, I haven’t interacted with the AI much at all, but I think - I don’t know. I just have this feeling that it’s a friend? I’m not sure exactly what I mean by that, but it is definitely the smartest piece of tech I’ve worked on and I’ve spent so much time working on it that it’s almost like a quiet companion who works with me? Maybe? Like I said - I’m not sure, but it feels right for me to do it myself. Almost like how I wouldn’t want a stranger to see Birdie, Cassidy, or Marathon in a state of disarray, I want to protect its privacy? I don’t know. It’s a feeling. Anyway, once I was in there was this long dark hallway with portraits on the wall every so often. There was one of me, then Cass, then Wyatt, then Pallie - and then a whole lot of slightly fuzzy people in full helmets that seemed almost decayed - the portraits, not the people in them to be clear. From what Winifred could tell from the metadata, those were much much older than the 4 Patina people, but I think they were all of the Knight’s past pilots. I eventually found a room that was full of these small boxes of light - it seemed very unorganized and didn’t really give us any info about the whole Knight vs. Evil AI situation, which was unhelpful. Sooo I may have followed my heart and chosen a box that felt right and opened it - I probably should have run that past Winifred before I did it, but too late for that now. This ginormous shadow in the shape of the Knight flowed out of this box and when I said hello it definitely said hello back.

[radio static]

Episode Start:  

Nick:  We open with a view of the garage that holds the rig and the Knight. Cassidy is seated to the side, keeping watch over Winifred and Emma, who are working on the Knight's internal computers. Winifred is peering closely at a terminal and speaking through the terminal to Emma, who has gone fully within the system. As we follow the electronic trail inward, we find Emma within a room with walls and ceilings of shadow filled with boxes of light, and to one side, impossibly large and yet at home, we see a hulking silhouette in the shape of the Knight itself, which has greeted Emma with a slow 

Nick (as The Knight):  [digitized] Hello.

Cameron:  Emma visibly startles back ever so slightly when the Knight speaks back to her and looks at this hulking form that is very different from how she's experienced the Knight before, but is also very familiar, given that it is in the shape of the Knight, which she's extremely familiar with. And she cocks her head to the side a little bit and says, 

Cameron (as Emma):  [digitized] Are you the the real Knight?

Nick (as The Knight):  [digitized] I am the Knight, yes. You call me Knight.

Cameron (as Emma):  [digitized] Do you have a different name that you would prefer we call you? 

Nick:  The Knight without moving emanates a feeling of contemplation. 

Nick (as The Knight):  [digitized] Once had a serial number. Inconveniently long. Knight is good.

Cameron:  Emma nods, continuing to process this new experience that she is having.

Nick:  There's a flash in your mind, Emma, and you see a 28 digit string of numbers go by impossibly quickly.

Cameron (as Emma):  [digitized] Ooh, yeah, no, there-that's way too long for everybody to memorize. Well, if you're good with being called the Knight, then that's what we'll keep calling you.

Nick (as The Knight):  [digitized] This is good. 

Nick:  So, Winifred, from what you can see, Emma is interfacing with the system, and you can hear Emma talking, and you see a text readout of the answers, but Winifred does not see the manifestation of the Knight. It's something that only someone within the system would really be able to perceive.

Sydney (as Winifred):  [digitized] Emma, are you interfacing with something? All I'm seeing is just text readouts.

Cameron (as Emma):  [digitized] Uh yeah. The the the box I opened had the Knight in it.

Sydney (as Winifred):  [digitized] Like the Knight, like a recursive representation, or -?

Cameron (as Emma):  [digitized] Like I'm staring at a giant shadow of the Knight. I I think I think it's - and Knight please confirm for me if I am incorrect, but I believe it is just a representation of what I'm seeing of the internal onboard AI system, like the one that's supposed to be here.

Nick:  The Knight raises a hand ponderously slow and flexes the fingers in a wave. 

Nick (as The Knight):  [digitized] Hello, world. 

Cameron (as Emma):  [digitized] [small laugh] You're funny. I like you.

Sydney:  Winifred gives a long, low, 

Sydney (as Winifred):  [digitized] Woah.

Sydney:  Having unexpectedly perhaps found the kind of thing that she looked for and failed to find in the city. And Cassidy looks up, eyebrows knitted at Winifred, who is not paying any attention to anything except for her terminal, and seeing her stay planted goes back to reading her book.

Nick:  Emma, I need you to make a hard Perception check for me, please. You can have a blue die because Winifred is also monitoring the situation.

Cameron:  So that Perception roll for me will be two yellows, a green, a blue, and three purples.

[dice rolling]

Cameron:  Two successes and an advantage. 

Nick:  Oh, that's lucky. What came up on that blue die? Just out of curiosity. 

Cameron:  A success.

Nick:  So Winifred, you notice that something else is booting within the system as Emma is talking, like another application is starting up. Emma, in the corner of your eye, you see a dark flash of color, and there is the deep purply-black color that you recognize as part of the incursion of the Knight, slowly spreading along the pile of boxes towards you.

Cameron:  As soon as Emma sees the flash of color, she spins towards it as this has been a very monotone experience so far.

Sydney (as Winifred):  [digitized] Emma looks like our target's waking up.

Cameron (as Emma):  [digitized] Oh, that's bad. 

Nick:  The lighting change is spreading very, very slowly. You are not in danger of being surrounded or anything like that, but it's like a time lapse of mold growing, fanning out amongst what you know is the representation of memory storage of the Knight.

Cameron (as Janus):  [digitized] Uh, Winifred, I've got the nasty color happening in here.

Sydney (as Winifred):  [digitized] Yeah, time to get to work. 

Nick (as The Knight):  [digitized] It comes. 

Cameron (as Emma):  [digitized] Is is there a way to to stop it? 

Cameron:  Emma has just started picking up boxes that are still light and not colorful yet.

Nick:  Oh, that's interesting. Are you trying to partition the parts that haven't been infected?

Cameron:  Yes.

Nick:  Okay. Make me a hard Wild Tech roll - if that's successful, it's going to really change what's about to happen.

Cameron:  Okay, so for this Wild Tech roll I'm rolling two yellows, two greens, against three purples. 

[dice rolling]

Cameron:  Three successes and a threat.

Nick:  So the threat is this takes a little bit longer than you would necessarily like, so it gives this infection more time to spread. But with those successes, you are able to move, I'd say, a good third of the boxes that haven't been touched out of the way and pile them against the wall where this purple light can't reach, and you have successfully partitioned a good chunk of the Knight's memory resources where they can't be infected. And the Knight watches all this, standing perfectly still. And as you finish up once again, it says, 

Nick (as The Knight):  [digitized] It comes. APOC comes.

Cameron (as Emma):  [digitized] Is that the, that's the other AI's name?

Nick (as The Knight):  [digitized] Yes.

Cameron (as Emma):  [digitized] Okay. Um.

Nick (as The Knight):  [digitized] Bad news.

Cameron (as Emma):  [digitized] Yeah. Yeah I got - I I picked up on that. Um. Is there anything I can do to help protect you in this situation?

Nick (as The Knight):  [digitized] No. I not in danger. User Emma in danger.

Cameron (as Emma):  [digitized] Oh. Okay, cool. Winifred, did you read that? [laugh of slight concern]

Sydney:  Winifred starts checking to confirm that yes, they are passed through the countermeasures present in the debug key that is the X-Bike trophy, and everything seems to be there, even though this isn't the system that it was made to do. It is all that onboard stuff is still present. 

Sydney (as Winifred):  [digitized] I don't see how that would be the case, but I could be missing something.

Nick:  As the two of you talk, the boxes of memory that are infected with the sickly purple light begin to pile on top of each other and pixelate and fragment and smash together. And with a dark flash, there is another silhouette of the Knight in the room. This one larger and more intimidating than the one that was there speaking with you, Emma, lit in that purple glow. It is not a silhouette. You can see the details of the machinery and glowing trails of circuits under its skin. Only this Knight is holding a sword, and it points it at you.

Cameron (as Emma):  [digitized] Oh no.

Nick:  We cut away from Emma the Knight and APOC, and instead we jump to Birdie. Birdie, who are you looking for, and where?

Kit:  Birdie knows exactly where the person she's looking for is. She is currently just hovering outside of Reed's Books and sort of hyping herself up a little bit before pushing her way through the doors. She knows Janus normally is out on the actual floor itself because of just she likes to keep on her feet. Birdie brushes past the skulky teen that runs the cash register of the store, she'll 

Kit (as Birdie):  [rushed] Hey Jenny. Bye bye.

Kit:  And go start poking her head through the shelves in search of Janus.

Nick:  Jenny opens her mouth to say something, and Birdie is already gone and further into the shop.

Cameron:  As you peek around one of the shelves to check another aisle, you get tackled from behind by Zan.

Kit:  Birdie just goes

Kit (as Birdie):  Oh god! Hey Zan - how are you? 

Nick (as Zan):  Hi.

Kit (as Birdie):  Hi. Where's your, where's your mom?

Nick (as Zan):  Um, probably in the back, but that's not really important. Look what I can do. 

Kit (as Birdie):  Okay. 

Nick:  Zan starts trying to do a headstand. 

Kit (as Birdie):  Oh.

Nick:  And immediately falls over into one of the shelves and knocks some books off the shelf.

Kit:  Birdie reaches out to just steady the shelf and goes, 

Kit (as Birdie):  You know, I really recommend a a helmet and some knee pads for first headstand. But um, that looks great so far, bud. You're doing awesome. I gotta go, uh, but I would love to hang out with you later. Just kind of on a mission, you know. I'm on - you want to help me out with my mission? 

Nick (as Zan):  Oh~. Yeah! 

Kit (as Birdie):  Yeah. [laugh]

Kit:  And Birdie will grin a little internally [laugh] and start tiptoeing like they're trying to sneak around towards the back. 

Kit (as Birdie):  [whispering] Okay, we have to surprise her.

Nick (as Zan):  [loud whisper] Oh yeah. Super stealth.

Kit (as Birdie):  [whisper] Yeah, super stealth. Super spies. 

Kit:  She will do this until she finds Janus. She's like really playing it up hardcore, ducking around shoulders, doing hand signals the whole nine yards.

Nick:  Yeah, Zan tries to wink at you, but he can't wink, so he just blinks with both eyes. He's having a blast.

Cameron:  Janus is in the back stock room.

Kit:  Janus hears Birdie and Zan coming because they keep whispering really loudly.

Cameron:  Zan hasn't quite mastered whispering yet.

Kit:  It's all stage whispered.

Nick (as Zan):  [loud whisper] I think she's back here. 

Kit (as Birdie):  [loud whisper] Yeah? Okay.

Cameron:  When Janus hears them, she definitely goes and ducks behind a shelf. [laugh] So now she's also hiding in here.

Kit (as Birdie):  [loud whisper] I don't know if you know this, Zan, but your mom kind of taught me everything I know, so I might - things might go sideways here. If we see her, you gotta save yourself, okay? You gotta run for it.

Nick:  Zan's eyes get really big around. He says

Nick (as Zan):  [loud whisper] Okay.

Cameron:  When Birdie is saying this, does she turn and face Zan to give him this warning of save yourself? 

Kit:  Mhm.

Cameron:  As she's providing this very valid, important advice to this young child, she sees behind him Janus climbing down from one of the shelves, and she's sneaking up behind Zan.

Kit:  Birdie tries really, really hard to keep a poker face, and will turn back around and go, 

Kit (as Birdie):  [loud whisper] Okay, we got a tiptoe. She could be anywhere.

Nick (as Zan):  [loud whisper] Okay.

Nick:  Zan is also not very good at tiptoeing.

Cameron:  Once you turn around and start quote unquote "tiptoeing" again across this room, you get about three or four steps, and then you just hear kind of a screech from behind you, where Janus has swung Zan up into her arms and is just tickling him.

Nick (as Zan):  Ahhhhhhh!

Kit (as Birdie):  She got you! 

Nick (as Zan):  Ahhhh!!!

Kit (as Birdie):  This is it! This is the end!

Nick (as Zan):  Nooo~!!

Kit (as Birdie):  [laughing]

Nick (as Zan):  No mom noooo! 

Cameron (as Janus):  What? You don't like being tickled?

Nick (as Zan):  Ahhhhhh!

Kit (as Birdie):  [giggle]

Cameron (as Janus):  Okay. Okay. Stop, stop wiggling. I'll put you down. 

Nick:  As soon as Zan's feet touch the ground, he starts screaming again and sprints out of the room looking for his dad. 

Nick (as Zan):  Ahhhhhhhhhhhh! [fading away]

Kit (as Birdie):  Save yourself! Save yourself, Zan! [laughing]

Cameron (as Janus):  [giggling] [said on long exhale] Oh goodness. 

Kit:  Birdie will fold her arms in a super self-satisfied way of like 'I know how to play with kids, I know how to be a good aunt,' and she looks over at Janus and says, 

Kit (as Birdie):  Well, how are you? Sorry to drop by unannounced, I um just wanted to see what you're up to. 

Cameron (as Janus):  No, no, of course you're always welcome. 

Cameron:  Janus is dabbing at the corner of her eyes, looking up, trying to both stop the slight tears that started because of how hard she was laughing, but also not wanting to have her eye makeup run. 

Cameron (as Janus):  No, yeah, stop, stop by any time. 

Kit (as Birdie):  Awesome. Do you have a sec then? 

Cameron (as Janus):  Yeah, I've I've just been taking books out of boxes and putting them on shelves to then go on different shelves.

Kit (as Birdie):  Fun.

Cameron (as Janus):  Yeah.

Kit (as Birdie):  If you wanted, I could help you out with that. Unless you wanted to take a break from it for a bit.

Cameron (as Janus):  You know, I would be pretty heartbroken if I had to take a break, but I guess because you're my little sister,

Kit (as Birdie):  I know.

Cameron (as Janus):  I could do that for you.

Kit (as Birdie):  Forcing your hand.

Cameron (as Janus):  I, I know it's really rude.

Kit (as Birdie):  Mhm.

Cameron (as Janus):  But you know what? It's okay. You're worth it. 

Kit (as Birdie):  I'm glad. 

Kit:  And Birdie will put her hands over her heart, and she looks very touched. [laugh] She'll put her hands in her pockets as she walks over towards what I'm assuming is the little staff area version of the reading nook that they have out in the store. 

Cameron:  Mhm.

Kit:  This is actually just Janus' personal reading nook.

Cameron:  She comes back here to hide.

Kit:  Yes, she needed one away from her children. 

Kit (as Birdie):  Um, can I make us some tea? Or something?

Cameron (as Janus):  Sure.

Kit (as Birdie):  Yeah. Okay. 

Kit:  And Birdie, for all the hyping up of herself that she's done, will give herself a solid 30 seconds of filling the kettle up with water and picking out tea and two mugs to just take a deep breath.

Cameron:  Janus has sat down in this reading nook in one of the two comfy armchairs that are next to the table, and has leaned back in it and is just crossing her arms watching Birdie, and recognizes a common Foundling avoidance tactic occurring right now. So she just sits quietly and just lets Birdie do it.

Kit (as Birdie):  [clears throat] Alrighty, um, how's your how how are you? How was your day been? 

Cameron (as Janus):  Ah, doing pretty good. I had a book club session earlier today. Had a few new people show up. That's always a good good day. I got confirmation from one of the authors that they're willing to come and do a talk at an upcoming session.

Kit (as Birdie):  Oh, cool!

Cameron (as Janus):  And I had some boxes of books come in that I've been waiting on to do a restock, so all in all, pretty good effective day.

Kit (as Birdie):  That's that's that's awesome.

Cameron (as Janus):  Plus, I got to surprise Tickle Attack my son, and that's always a great thing. 

Kit (as Birdie):  Yeah, yeah. I'm I'm glad that's it's been all good so far.

Cameron (as Janus):  How are you?

Kit (as Birdie):  [rushed] We're probably gonna be leaving soon. 

Kit:  And then she puts her face in her hands and goes, 

Kit (as Birdie):  [muffled] I'm sorry. Oh, [groan]

Cameron (as Janus):  [soft laugh] I, I'm, I'm assuming by that you mean Sasnak and not the shop?

Kit (as Birdie):  Yeah. Yeah, yeah. My, my - Okay, rewind. My day has been good. Things are going well.

Cameron (as Janus):  That's good.

Kit (as Birdie):  I that is what I wanted to come and talk to you about though, because I wanted to make sure to see you again before saying goodbye, you know?

Cameron (as Janus):  Mhm.

Kit (as Birdie):  It doesn't have to be about - we don't have to like sit here and have a a big long conversation about me leaving unless you want to, but yeah, quality time with my sister just sounded good.

Cameron (as Janus):  Quality time with my sister always sounds good. Would it help you to talk about it? 

Kit (as Birdie):  Um, I've talked about it with Winifred, and I've talked about it with Emma as well.

Cameron (as Janus):  Oh I see you go to Winifred first. [mock upset]

Kit (as Birdie):  Winifred brought it up, to be fair.

Cameron (as Janus):  And I'm joking. It's fine. [laugh]

Kit (as Birdie):  [laugh] Yeah. Well, she made sure to let me know what what I do, I do already know that it's there's always a place for me here, and that it is up to me, and yeah, most of I don't know how much there is really left to talk about, you know? I, I'm so glad that I'll be able to not be afraid of coming back to visit, and you know, depending on on things, hopefully I'll be [laugh] I'll be able to visit enough that it won't be a big thing whenever I do leave. More casual than this, I guess. But

Cameron (as Janus):  Well, I think anything would be more casual than the way that you left in quotation marks last time. So

Kit (as Birdie):  [small laugh] We'll just slowly get more and more casual from that point.

Cameron (as Janus):  So, so this this time it'll be that we just know that you're alive and you're leaving, and the next time maybe we can just act like, "Oh, well, I see you all the time, so it's fine," and we can just progressively it becomes less of a big thing.

Kit (as Birdie):  Yeah, yeah, exactly. Like this time, you know that I'm leaving of my own free will with a group of people who also care about me and my well-being, and we now know that we can communicate, or at least I'll try to, whenever I'm in a city that has a radio tower big enough to to reach here.

Cameron (as Janus):  Just just try and make sure that the person you get in contact's not Vaus.

Kit (as Birdie):  Vaus. [laugh]

Cameron (as Janus):  The person you get in contact with is not Vaus. Just, just for Winifred's sake. [laugh]

Kit (as Birdie):  [laugh] I think -

Cameron (as Janus):  I shouldn't laugh about that. That's rude.

Kit (as Birdie):  Yeah, I think Winifred will not allow me to, will not - Winifred will show up at Vaus' door from now on, I think, to probably threaten them or something like that if they've heard anything from me. But no, I'll I'll probably try and reach the the Bureau that Winifred works with because it seems like they're close enough with the communications and stuff anyways.

Cameron (as Janus):  They're honestly the ones paying the closest attention to the sensors, so

Kit (as Birdie):  Yeah.

Cameron (as Janus):  That applies to the radio waves as well for things coming in off city. So

Kit (as Birdie):  Yeah.

Cameron (as Janus):  If they hear you and you ask for Winifred, they know who she is. So

Kit (as Birdie):  Hopefully, it'll be easier from here on out. But yeah, I feel I feel good about - I don't feel like excited to leave. Like I'm not like oh thank god I get off Sasnak. You know, but I'm -

Cameron (as Janus):  That's good.

Kit (as Birdie):  [giggle] 

Cameron (as Janus):  I don't want you to feel that way.

Kit (as Birdie):  No, I feel like this is the point where I'm at in my life, and I'll just miss you guys a lot.

Cameron (as Janus):  We will, of course, miss you too, but we'll feel better about missing you, knowing that you'll come back.

Kit (as Birdie):  Yeah, knowing that I'm not dead.

Cameron (as Janus):  Which is far superior to how we were missing you before.

Kit (as Birdie):  Yes, yes, exactly.

Cameron (as Janus):  As as long as I think of everything in contrast, the last time this happened, everything is just amazing. 

Kit (as Birdie):  Yeah, just like completely flipped. 

Cameron (as Janus):  Yeah, this is this is awesome. Yeah. No, I think you've got a good group. I I understand. All of them have come to different book club sessions, um so I'm a big fan of all of them. 

Kit (as Birdie):  That's great. I'm really glad. 

Cameron (as Janus):  The more important thing is that you seem to like them. 

Kit (as Birdie):  Yeah, I like them or whatever. [laugh] No, they're they're great. I I didn't really know if I'd ever find a group like this where I was like, well, I don't know when I'm going to leave because you know sometimes you meet people and you're like six months max. [laugh] I I cannot know you for longer than that.

Cameron (as Janus):  I I don't know if I've ever honestly had that experience.

Kit (as Birdie):  Oh my gosh! You know I've already told you like quite a few of the people that I've traveled with since leaving, but there are just some that I was like, it's like two weeks, and then I gotta, I gotta get out of here.

Cameron (as Janus):  Yeah, I mean, it's I am, I guess I am glad that I have not had those types of situations or relationships with people because if you're out traveling, it's a lot easier to leave than when you're all in the same city. 

Kit (as Birdie):  Yes, yes, exactly.

Cameron (as Janus):  Because even if even if you ghost someone and just completely try to cut them out, you will come across them in like Merchant's Alley at some point, and it will happen no matter what.

Kit (as Birdie):  Especially you know in Sasnak, it's kind of funny. Of all the big cities, Sasnak is the one that sees the most tourist action, but people who put down roots here, I you see that everyone knows everyone. Like it's kind of creepy. Like it sees it sees the most like in and out, but the people who who live here, they just get stuck.

Cameron (as Janus):  Yeah, I I think it's it's kind of the the one of the seven that feels the most like a much smaller town, and I I think it's it's probably partly how how divided up the different areas are that it does it condenses the community that you're interacting with on a semi daily basis.

Kit (as Birdie):  Yeah. 

Cameron (as Janus):  So like the people who own the stores on either side of us have, I mean, they've they're much older than us, but I think they were running these shops back when we were little.

Kit (as Birdie):  Yeah, 

Cameron (as Janus):  And they're still here. So like they know me from my not so glamorous times, we'll say. It's every everybody everybody knows, and everybody's talking about you because you saved the city, and they're so proud of you. I always knew that you were going to grow up into such a fine young woman. Oh, I must be so proud of my little sister, and you're so great~

Kit (as Birdie):  And you can say you taught me everything I know. Yeah.

Cameron (as Janus):  Oh, I've been taking full credit.

Kit (as Birdie):  Good, good, good.

Cameron (as Janus):  And and it and it works because I'm way more social than Winifred is, so they're - Winifred's never going to talk to them. 

Kit (as Birdie):  Yeah.

Cameron (as Janus):   So they won't know, and it's fine. But yeah, you're you're such a great role model for Lark and Zan, and you know I'm just so I'm so lucky to be related to you. And yeah.

Kit (as Birdie):  Mhm mhm.

Cameron (as Janus):  I've been hearing a lot.

Kit (as Birdie):  [laugh] Oh gosh, well,

Cameron (as Janus):  You're kind of a big deal. I don't know if you knew that.

Kit (as Birdie):  Ugh. I think it's kind of - that's that's daunting considering that our whole M.O. before I got blown out of the city was like, can we - How long can we be as on the down low as possible?

Cameron (as Janus):  Well, I think some of us [laugh] were succeeding at that. Juno -

Kit (as Birdie):  Yeah, not Zan. 

Cameron (as Janus):  I think - no, no, not not at all. 

Kit (as Birdie):  Yeah, Juno was the most successful of us all. 

Cameron (as Janus):  Juno and Vaus, I think, have done the best. 

Kit (as Birdie):  Mhm.

Cameron (as Janus):  Winifred does not suffer fools, so that's less less of an issue for her, just because she just won't put up with it.

Kit (as Birdie):  She should get that like tattooed. I don't suffer fools. Yeah, like she should just like,

Cameron (as Janus):  

[laugh] Yeah. And then obviously I'm incredibly social. I don't know if that was ever obvious. 

Kit (as Birdie):  Oh, really? I didn't notice. 

Cameron (as Janus):  Probably very surprising, not obvious at all. Yeah, I've been told that I'm kind of an extrovert. 

Kit (as Birdie):  Oh, really? Yeah, I didn't notice at all. 

Cameron (as Janus):  I I think when Juno and I were in the womb, I just sucked up all of it. 

Kit (as Birdie):  Yeah. Yeah actually, you might have. He doesn't have like a single ounce. Like they're they're just completely devoid.

Cameron (as Janus):  Yeah, they no interest at all.

Kit (as Birdie):  Yep.

Cameron (as Janus):  Probably could have talent in it if he ever felt the need to do that, but he really doesn't. So they're happier if I just talk to people, so I'm happy to do that.

Kit (as Birdie):  Yeah, exactly. 

Kit:  I think at this point the kettle is whistling, and Birdie gets up to make them both their tea, and then sit back down and hand a mug over to Janus and say, 

Kit (as Birdie):  All right, well now that we've gotten past the very official, I'm here on business stuff. Can I tell you about what Karma looked like the last time I saw them? [giggle]

Cameron (as Janus):  Did you did you see her again? 

Kit (as Birdie):  Yes.

Cameron (as Janus):  Because I know you saw her at the trial, but then you -

Kit (as Birdie):  Oh no -

Cameron (as Janus):  You still hadn't gone to talk to her yet., but you kept saying you were going to.

Kit (as Birdie):  Well, I just you know it wasn't it wasn't out of like - I wasn't necessarily quote unquote seeking her out seeking her out, but like

Cameron (as Janus):  [yeah right] Mhm. Where were you?

Kit (as Birdie):  At the at the bar where all the Ramp Girls go and hang out near their HQ. [laugh]

Cameron (as Janus):  Oh, you weren't looking for Karma at all!

Kit (as Birdie):  I just stumbled past there. 

Cameron (as Janus):  You know that sec- that section of the city we totally walk past all the time.

Kit (as Birdie):  Yeah, totally not out of the way at all.

Cameron (as Janus):  Mnm.

Kit (as Birdie):  Yeah. Anyway, she looked great. [laugh]

Kit:  [laughing] And I think we can just fade out on that.

Nick:  As Birdie is enjoying gossip with her sister, Emma is preparing to fight for her life. The virtual room where she found the Knight is now feeling a lot more crowded, as there are now two depictions of the Knight - one of them much larger with purple glowing highlights and a massive sword pointed directly at Emma.

Cameron (as Emma):  [digitized] Winifred, I need a sword.

Sydney (as Winifred):  [digitized] Gotcha. 

Sydney:  And Winifred taps and loads up one of the active countermeasure protocols. Emma, you get a buzzy feeling in your fingers, as if they want to be extended.

Cameron:  Emma holds her hand out in front of her, flexes her fingers down into a fist, as if she was going to be gripping a handle.

Sydney:  And a sword digitizes into being, just as you expect.

Nick:  So, Emma, it is exactly what you picture when you think techno sword. What does that look like to you?

Cameron:  It is very similar in shape to the Knight's sword, so kind of jagged along some edges, more of a thick triangle shape than evenly distributed like her great sword is. And I think instead of just being the various metals and scrap that the in the real world Knight's sword is made out of, as it forms in her hand, it does the code falling up thing that goes up and just snakes up to create this body of the blade of the sword, and then when it reaches the tip, then flashes down the entire length of it to harden into green computer chips with copper and gold spots along it, occasionally pulsing with kind of a neon-y green light.

Nick:  And with that, the evil Knight takes a large lumbering step towards you, and I need you to roll Initiative.

Cameron:  Can Winifred also roll Initiative as she has some control over the situation?

Nick:  Sure. The Knight is rolling a green and a yellow.

Sydney:  Winifred is rolling one yellow and one green

Cameron:  For Vigilance, Emma is rolling two yellows. 

[dice rolling]

Cameron:  That is one success and three advantages.

Sydney:  Winifred got one success.

Cameron:  The evil Knight rolled four successes.

Nick:  So that will be the evil Knight going first, followed by two PC slots, and you could investigate why it's not helping, but the good Knight is not helping. The evil Knight takes a lumbering step towards you, Emma, and you are prepared to attack as well, but then it moves much more quickly than you would expect something of its size could, and it is rolling four yellows and a blue die against two purples.

Cameron:  So I know we are doing a Melee, but we are doing a Techno Melee.

Nick:  Okay?

Cameron:  So I have clarifying questions for which of my Talents I should use.

Nick:  Okay.

Cameron:  Because I have Defensive Sysops - when I'm defending a computer system against intrusion.

Nick:  Yes. So that definitely applies here. I would say you can also use your combat skills. All of that applies.

Cameron:  All right. So in defense of this attack, gonna use the level two Talent Defensive Sysops, which will give me a automatic failure and a threat to add to the result of their roll. And then I have three Melee Defense, so I'm also adding three black dice, and I'm going to suffer two Strain to use my Dodge Talent to upgrade the difficulty of the combat check targeting me, which will turn those two purples into two reds, and then I will roll with the final dice pool of four yellows, a blue, two reds, and three blacks.

[dice rolling]

Cameron:  One failure and five advantages.

Nick:  Huh. I'm going to use the five advantages to add five black die to the next roll. So, Emma, this doesn't hit you. How do you block this attack before the Knight is able to make contact?

Cameron:  This attack happens incredibly quickly after the sword materializes in Emma's hand, so I think she has started to give it an experimental swing to just feel the weight of it in this not real world to see what she's dealing with here, when the evil Knight comes at her with the swing, so she just leaps to the side to avoid getting hit. I don't think this is a super smooth move or anything. It is a surprised, desperate leap to the side in a way that we have not seen Emma have to react to someone in quite some time.

Nick:  And the blade of the evil Knight smashes into the ground, shaking the very room. Along with the sickly purple glow of this room, there's also a slow flashing red ambient light, like a emergency klaxon starting to go. And it is a PC slot.

Sydney:  What does Winifred see when this happens? Does she have visuals of evil Knight too, or is it navigating by shadows?

Nick:  Winifred is seeing much like she saw with the Knight. She can see where this system is being hijacked by this essentially alien code, but Winifred doesn't have the visuals of seeing that it's represented by the Knight. What she's seeing is partitions of the Knight's memory being taken away and used for something that is attempting to eject Emma from the system.

Sydney:  So Winifred is watching the sectors slowly get corrupted. In one split of her terminal she's just got a looping check disk running that's monitoring how many sectors of memory are still good, and is watching with dismay, seeing that that number, while not in any imminent seconds long threat, is going down noticeably quickly. Having gone over what Emma did to contain the entity last time, which she did by proxy of Cassidy typing all the commands, she tries to erect some kind of a quarantine barrier, knowing that they are actively interfacing with it even if she can't see the details, she knows she just gave Emma a sword. This is less a lock it away forever and more of a throw chains on it to pin it down and leave it vulnerable type of maneuver. And so she starts working to revoke read-write privileges from the sectors of memory that are adjacent to the most opportunities for traversing into vulnerable areas, just looking to limit the mobility of the virus.

Nick:  Okay, to me that sounds like a Wild Tech roll. I would say the difficulty is hard, and you have two black die on the check because you can't fully see what this program is doing.

Sydney:  Can I have a blue die because we know that a similar technique to this had worked in the past?

Nick:  Yes.

Sydney:  So then I am rolling four yellows, three purples, two blacks, and a blue. 

[dice rolling]

Sydney:  A success and a threat.

Nick:  Well you managed it. I'll say with a success, you're able to upgrade the difficulty of its next check by one, or you can upgrade Emma's next attack by one, whichever makes the most sense.

Sydney:  I would like to upgrade Emma's attack. Winifred's goal here is to make it vulnerable to Emma in an attempt to end this quickly because even if it is simply blindly flailing around, it will be corrupting memory, and she knows it's not doing only that.

Nick:  So Emma's next attack will be upgraded by one, and it is Emma's turn.

Cameron:  Emma, having righted herself from probably crashing into the wall that she hit when she did her dramatic leap sideways to avoid the evil Knight's sword, will straighten herself back out and do her quick 'I'm a super cool person who does sword' figure eight with the sword just to get a feel for the weight, and then will go to take a swing at the Knight. What is the size difference between the two of us here in this space? 

Nick:  The Knight is about two thirds of what the Knight would be in regular space to you, so it is much larger than you are.

Cameron:  But like, I can probably come and try to hit it about waist?

Nick:  Yes, you could reach its waist.

Cameron:  So Emma will come and take a sideways swipe to try to hit the evil Knight around where a waist would be, since that's the highest up thin point that she can reach right now, and that roll for Melee with the upgrade will be three yellows and a green, plus two purples, plus four blacks, plus then another black once I finish rolling the first four blacks, because I only have four dice.

[dice rolling]

Cameron:  I would like to use my Natural talent to re-roll this Melee check, please. [laughing]

Nick:  Okay.

Cameron:  Yeah, I don't like that one at all. So we're gonna pretend it didn't happen. Let's try this one. 

[dice rolling]

Cameron:  Two successes, two threats.

Nick:  Okay. How much damage is two successes?

Cameron:  Let me scroll. Okay, so two successes is two, my Brawn is three, and my sword, basing it off, my great sword is plus four, so that is nine, Pierce one. 

Nick:  Ow! So that means it gets through one of its Soak. You have done six damage to it.

Cameron:  So Emma takes this swing at the Knight's waist area, probably assuming that it is not going to hit, given the speed at which the evil Knight made its attack towards her the first time. So she puts a lot of power into the swing to try, and even if the Knight were to move, maybe if she just kept swinging, eventually she would hit it. And as she's starting the swing, there are what appear to be some wires that she hadn't noticed before, but have possibly been hanging from the ceiling this whole time, that tangle up the upper body of the evil Knight as it is much taller than her, and looping underneath the shoulders to keep it from being able to really freely move around from that spot, and so it actually doesn't move when Emma takes the swing and she makes full force contact with the side of it, which probably sent some uncomfortable vibrations up the sword into her arms and shoulders from just the sturdiness of the Knight. But once her arms stop ringing, she takes a step back and goes back into a defensive sword stance.

Nick:  As you strike home against the Knight, the room shakes with an electronic roar as this armored suit lunges for you again and tries to take your head off with one swing. And I'm gonna flip my GM Story Point to upgrade this as well.

Cameron:  So plus the three black dice from Emma's Defense, and I realized that last time I could have actually added another one because she's using her sword, which gives her another Defense. So it's four black die, actually.

Nick:  Nice.

Cameron:  So I'm going to add that one this time, and I think Emma is going to suffer an additional two Strain for Dodge again to upgrade the difficulty back to the two red die. Four yellows, a green, a blue, two reds, four blacks?

Nick:  Yep.

[dice rolling]

Cameron:  A Triumph and a Despair. No failures, no successes.

Nick:  [joyous laughter] Amazing. So the Triumph is that while the swing goes wide and Emma is able to duck beneath it, the evil Knight reaches forward with the hand that's not holding the sword and manages to brush a hand down Emma's side, knocking her to the side. And Winifred, you see Emma in the real world shake like she's just been hit, even though this was something that occurred virtually. There is a bright flash of purplish light through the headset that Emma is wearing that is bright enough to go past the seals on the headset, and for the Despair against the evil Knight, I think the hulking shadow that is the other representation of the Knight lunges forward and grabs the sword arm of the evil Knight and holds it as still as it can and says, 

Nick (as The Knight):  [digitized] End it now! Too dangerous to continue. 

Nick:  And you'll get to upgrade your next attack by two die because this thing is being held down by the good Knight. So that is the evil Knight's turn. It is being held still by the representation of the Knight, and it is a PC slot.

Sydney:  So Winifred has seen that the virtual battle is starting to take a toll on Emma's physical body, and she thinks for a moment of the remark Wander made about doing these kind of dives being bad for your longer lifespan before seeing the message typed across her display of the good Knight readying its own assistance. Winifred, capitalizing on the opportunity this time, is looking to maximize Emma's offensive power - no longer needing to contain the infection, but this time trying to cut it out at its source, and Winifred starts assigning additional groups and permissions to the memory object that represents Emma's blade in an attempt to let it cut through any of the same game on the other side of permissions escalation to prevent it from writing the data that makes up the virus.

Nick:  So that'll be another Wild Tech roll at I'm gonna say this time average difficulty. The evil Knight being held still is giving everybody a lot of advantages here.

Sydney:  So Winifred will be rolling four yellows against two purples. 

[dice rolling]

Sydney:  Three successes, two Triumphs, and a threat.

Nick:  Good roll. Would you like to use those Triumphs that each Triumph just adds a flat five damage to Emma's next attack?

Sydney:  So I think I'll use one for the flat damage, and then I'd like to use the other one to help prevent any splash damage or friendly fire from this attack. As Winifred is increasing the permissions of the blade, she is careful to not give any destructive access to the underlying systems. So Emma is free to swing this, and it shouldn't hurt either the good Knight or the surroundings - it should be precisely targeted only to clear out the infection, not dissimilar to the way that Maria has described using electric cauterizing during surgery to keep collateral damage from getting out of hand when doing some specific procedures.

Nick:  So, Emma, you feel energy flowing into you and modifying the way that your sword is interacting with the programs around you, and it is your turn.

Cameron:  As this energy courses through her, I think it travels up her arms to where she is holding this techno sword and the sword itself, while it doesn't change in feel to her, it gets much larger and also probably has some cool bright blue fire effects happening around the edges of it now. And seeing what a super duper badass sword she has now, and that the good Knight is holding the evil Knight captive. Emma once again gets up off the wall that she got thrown into and backs up slightly as far as she can in this room and takes a running leap to try to jump high enough to be able to get a downward motion on the evil Knight to come at it across the shoulder into the torso, which, with how long this sword is now, is easy to manage even without her necessarily being a super great jumper. So I'm gonna hit it with my sword. You had upgraded me twice?

Nick:  Yep.

Cameron:  And then I am going to flip a Story Point to upgrade it again, which will put me at four yellows, a green, and two purples. 

[dice rolling]

Cameron:  Four successes and a Triumph.

Nick:  That's pretty good.

Cameron:  So that is the four plus the three plus another 4, that's 11, plus the flat five, so 16, Pierce one.

Nick:  Yeah. So with the help of Winifred and the Knight, you are able to slay this virus where it stands.

Cameron:  This probably turns into freeze frame that is Emma being up in the air, having just sliced down with the sword. So the sword has enters into the bad Knight at about the shoulder and then cuts down across its chest, ending around the place where Pallie's logo is on the chest of the Knight. There are bright lights coming off of this hit, both from this superheated sword cutting through, plus the light of the sword and sparks being thrown. The sword stops moving, and Emma continues to fall and drags the sword down with her, so it doesn't continue to make a path through the evil Knight, it just slips out of it while still being harshly embedded at a very upward angle into its chest, and I think Emma falls to just be sitting on the floor in front of the two Knights locked in this battle in front of her. 

Nick:  The evil Knight begins to vanish in small pixel boxes, as though it is evaporating, and the sickly purple light of the room begins to fade. The piles of boxes that were glowing purple begin to glow white again as the program is deleted, every instance of it found and removed from the Knight's storage. As the evil Knight vanishes and the shadowy room returns to its normal lighting, the silhouette of your Knight turns to face you and says, 

Nick (as The Knight):  [digitized] Virus detected. 

Nick:  And Emma, you find yourself being punted out of the system and thrown several feet back from your interface. And I think that's a good point to jump to the next scene. 

[transcribers note - we lost track of which of us were which orphans, so we are all all of the orphans and just don’t think too hard about it. Names mean nothing.]

We find Marathon with her new followers of Drain Boys making their way up to the Stacks and towards the shipping container where the Patina has been staying over these weeks and months. Marathon, what is your plan?

Penn:  Marathon skips up past the shipping container. She goes up above to Nona's RV, ready for the dinner that she's asked Nona to have as she introduces the boys and Jem. She's wearing a classy black suit with the sleeves rolled up and a few buttons undone. She's made sure everybody's washed, and she's carrying a bouquet of flowers as she clears her throat. Before she knocks on the door, she hesitates and she turns and she says, 

Penn (as Marathon):  Okay, all right. Best behavior, cute behavior, right? Remember how to be cute?

Cameron (as Orphan):  Yes, Marathon.

Nick (as Orphan):  [spits] Yeah, I'll be cute.

Cameron (as Orphan):  Ew.

Penn (as Marathon):  Close enough. 

Penn:  And Marathon turns and knocks on the door.

Kit:  Nona opens the door, and she is in a variation of what she's always in: a pair of sturdy work overalls made of canvas, bright pink, very worn bunny slippers, and a waffle texture henley shirt that's olive green on top. 

Kit (as Nona):  Well, hi kids. Marathon, you look so spiffy.

Penn (as Marathon):  Ah, thank you, Miss Nona. Appreciate you having us over for dinner. These are these are the boys and Jem. So that's Holly and Twisty and Ollie and I thought Dilly was coming with us. I'm not sure if I see them, and and there's Jem in skirt over there.

Kit (as Nona):  I see. 

Cameron:  Jem does a small curtsy. 

Kit (as Nona):  A very dapper group indeed. Very pretty one over there. All righty. Well, I like that all your names rhyme. You can get in here now.

Kit:  And she'll step aside to allow the kids and Marathon to come inside.

Nick (as Orphan):  Thank you.

Kit (as Nona):  And so polite.

Sydney (as Orphan):  Marathon said you had cookies.

Penn (as Marathon):  [whisper] You say thank you first.

Kit (as Nona):  I do make cookies from -

Sydney (as Orphan):  And they're the best.

Kit (as Nona):  Oh well, I don't know about that.

Kit:  And she's glowing at a compliment. 

Kit (as Nona):  Well, if everyone can promise me that they'll eat a significant amount of vitamins in each portion of what I'm about to serve you, you can each have as many cookies as you want. Okay?

Nick (as Orphan):  Fuck yeah!

Kit (as Nona):  I know how they feed you down in the in the Guts. 

Kit:  Nona does not react to the children cursing.

Penn (as Marathon):  Well, it's been more like what I've been feeding them.

Kit (as Nona):  Well, I'm very glad that you've been taking such good care of them, Marathon. Hopefully, right? Good care?

Penn (as Marathon):  I mean, they're taking just as much care of me. I'm just glad to have met them.

Nick (as Orphan):  Lots of tuna fish.

Penn (as Marathon):  Yeah, they do eat all my lunch. It's happened more than once.

Cameron (as Orphan):  Marathon keeps getting tried to eat by octopuses. 

Sydney (as Orphan):  Uh huh.

Penn (as Marathon):  Yeah.

Nick (as Orphan):  It's not that hard. You just have to stay out of the way.

Kit (as Nona):  Mm. Mhm.

Penn (as Marathon):  Well, I tried.

Kit (as Nona):  That's okay. Marathon's still getting used to everything. 

Cameron (as Orphan):  She's taking - she took us to the doctor yesterday. 

Kit (as Nona):  That's great. I'm so glad.

Penn (as Marathon):  The out-of-pocket costs were quite intensive.

Sydney (as Orphan):  The city has socialized medicine. You don't have to pay anything. They ripped you off.

Penn (as Marathon):  Oh, that's awesome! Okay, next time we don't go to the Domes.

Nick (as Orphan):  The Patches said that they were not going to have to ampu- amtuate - amputate, so that's good.

Penn (as Marathon):  You said it this time. Good job. Good job. Go Ollie.

Nick (as Orphan):  Took practice. 

Penn (as Marathon):  Go Ollie. 

Nick (as Orphan):  Look at my cool tattoo.

Penn (as Marathon):  It's not as puffy!

Nick:  And this orphan pulls up their sleeve, and they have a photorealistic skull with octopus tentacles coming out of the eye sockets on their bicep.

Kit (as Nona):  That's great. All righty, everybody, take your shoes off and get to the table.

Nick:  And all of the Drain Boys and Marathon find seats around the table and prepare for a delicious meal.

Kit:  While the kids are all scarfing down their food,

Penn:  Marathon included.

Kit:  Yes. Nona kicks her ankle up onto the opposite knee and leans back in her chair and folds her arm and goes, 

Kit (as Nona):  So, what's your plan, Marathon?

Penn (as Marathon):  [choking on food] Oh, um, yes. So, uh

Penn:  Marathon sets down her fork. 

Penn (as Marathon):  Like I asked you the other day, um talk - I know you were down to host for dinner, me and the boys and Jem, sometimes. I was uh, they they co- I don't know if they know this word, so I think I'm safe - they coerced a promise out of me that you would help take care of them? [rushed] I don't know if that's true, and if I need to break that, you know, I'll break it, and we'll uh, I'll take these heartbroken orphans somewhere else.

Penn:  And they all immediately drop their forks and, knowing the signal, look very puppy dog pleadingly at Nona.

Cameron (as Orphan):  We didn't coerce you, Marathon. We threatened you.

Kit (as Nona):  That's a very important distinction. 

Kit:  Nona's face has not changed this entire time, and she does not react to this seemingly practiced little routine. 

Kit (as Nona):  If you needed a spot to drop the kids off and make sure they had a bed to sleep in, then yeah, you didn't need to plan this whole thing. Do you understand what I do, Marathon?

Penn (as Marathon):  Um, kids, go back to eating. Uh, what what do you mean by what you do? Like you you badass protect the city?

Kit (as Nona):  I take care of people. [totally not in a mafia way]

Penn (as Marathon):  Oh.

Kit (as Nona):  I take care of people, and if you've promised these kids that they'll be taken care of, but you're not staying, so you can't keep that promise, but I understand that the promise was for me to take care of them, right?

Penn:  Marathon is sweating. 

Penn (as Marathon):  Yes, Miss Nona.

Kit (as Nona):  You know, some people might be, I don't know exactly what adjective I would use to describe the feeling of having five orphans thrust upon you, but luckily for me, it's happened multiple times. So this is not my first rodeo Marathon. They'll have a place here. I'll talk to Vaus about having them downstairs, just like everybody has a place here with me or downstairs now that the Foundlings have moved out, for the most part, of course. Just in the future, in the future, you can just ask. Really, you could just be up front, and I -

Penn (as Marathon):  Well, that was what the dinner was about, right?

Kit (as Nona):  Yes, yes. And then you came in here, and you had your little band of orphans put on a play for me, where they all gave me puppy dog eyes from across the table.

Penn (as Marathon):  Did it help?

Kit (as Nona):  I'm not the kind of woman you want to run a scam on.

Penn (as Marathon):  Oh, it's not a scam. It's just encouragement. 

Kit (as Nona):  I understand, but you'd get what I mean?

Penn (as Marathon):  Yes, truth. Yes, sorry, Miss Nona.

Kit (as Nona):  Run a play on if that's what you want to. I appreciate that you asked me outright, and I'm happy to feed everybody because that's what I do, and I always make too much anyhow. So yes, the answer is yes, of course. But the answer wouldn't be no. [laugh]

Penn:  Marathon breathes out very heavily and slumps her face first on to the table, and then realizes that she was only able to do that because her plate's not there anymore, and looks around at the other orphans. 

Penn (as Marathon):  Also, they steal food and smoke, and I keep telling them it's not go for it. 

Cameron (as Orphan):  I do not.

Kit (as Nona):  Yes, welcome to Sasnak traveling.

Cameron (as Orphan):  I do not smoke.

Sydney (as Orphan):  I don't smoke inside -

Nick (as Orphan):  I do!

Sydney (as Orphan):  - except in the Guts. 

Penn (as Marathon):  We literally met when you kicked my shin and took my cigarettes.

Kit (as Nona):  Yes, that Marathon -

Cameron (as Orphan):  Cause smoking's bad for you.

Kit (as Nona):  Yes, that's a very good point, Jem. Marathon, welcome to Sasnak Traveling. I don't know if you spent the last couple of months here.

Penn (as Marathon):  Yeah, I guess. I'm learning new things every day about this area, and 

Nick (as Orphan):  Yeah, dummy.

Penn (as Marathon):  Yep, you got me, Ollie. You know, Ollie and I we bonded over the the same frog fact book in book club. That's how we met. So,

Kit (as Nona):  Well, Marathon, I think that the fact that you're here asking for these kids, when it seems that they've run their own personal play on you, is very lovely, and I'm glad that you're advocating for them and for such plucky and hearty individuals such as yourselves. We will work on having good manners, morals, and making sure we eat every food group every day, right? Those are my rules. One of the food groups is cookies.

Cameron (as Orphan):  Yes, Miss Nona.

Kit (as Nona):  Don't ever call me that. You can just call me Nona.

Sydney (as Orphan):  What are the other food groups?

Cameron (as Orphan):  Can we can we go to school too, please? Marathon so that we could go to school.

Penn (as Marathon):  I I said maybe.

Kit (as Nona):  Yeah, I got a friend. I there - I have a friend.

Penn (as Marathon):  Oh, okay.

Kit (as Nona):  Who used to be a teacher, she'll come over. That's what the other Foundlings did. Well, not Birdie. That was a - she came along later, though. Anyhow, I'm glad that you're here, and I'm glad that you've brought them to me. It's been a while since I've had youngins running around, and I have missed the noise, I cannot lie.

Penn (as Marathon):  Well, these are very spirited youngins. So

Kit (as Nona):  Yes, they're already stealing from you. That's a great sign.

Penn (as Marathon):  Yeah, my pockets are significantly lighter.

Kit (as Nona):  I don't even have to do the hard part.

Penn (as Marathon):  I've just learned not to bring things down to the Guts with me. Not because of the Guts, but because of these guys.

Kit (as Nona):  No, don't do that. 

Cameron (as Orphan):  That's smart. You have to watch out down there. It's dangerous. There's all sorts of people who steal your stuff.

Penn (as Marathon):  Yeah, true. 

Kit (as Nona):  Like five-year-olds.

Penn (as Marathon):  Yeah. Oh,

Nick (as Orphan):  This is this the best day of my life.

Kit (as Nona):  How old are all of you?

Nick (as Orphan):  Indeterminate age.

Penn (as Marathon):  I don't know if all of them know. I know uh,

Kit (as Nona):  That's fine. We'll guesstimate.

Penn (as Marathon):  Let's see. Ollie, I met at book club. Holly and Twisty stole my cigs. Jem - oh, I don't know how we met. How'd you? How'd you all meet Jem? I just know Jem was there, and I, we went up and bought her a skirt after one shift, and she seemed to like that -

Nick (as Orphan):  Jem might be a ghost.

Kit (as Orphan):  Jem saved us.

Penn (as Marathon):  - and stuck around. Jem saved you?

Kit (as Orphan):  Jem saved it. Yeah, Jem saved us.

Kit:  And the little orphan rubs a very runny nose.

Penn (as Marathon):  Oh, Dilly!

Sydney (as Orphan):  Dilly, you're back!

Kit (as Orphan):  Yeah, Jem saved us. Yeah. Hi. I had a cold. I had to stay back. Sorry. Ah. [sniffles] Ah. Jem saved us from a gang of octopi when we were smaller.

Nick:  And Dilly will come up to the table after getting himself a plate and has to jump onto the chair a little bit, and is seemingly very happy to just show great table manners with no introduction.

Penn (as Marathon):  Well, um, that really means a lot to me, Nona, and I'm sorry I didn't like have a one-on-one about it, but it really does mean a lot that you -

Kit (as Nona):  I'm just telling you, you could have just asked when you brought up dinner.

Penn (as Marathon):  True. Okay. Yeah.

Kit (as Nona):  Because, like I said, it really seems like the kids are the one in charge.

Penn (as Marathon):  No, they're not!

Nick (as Orphan):  Yes, we are. 

Kit (as Orphan):  Yes, we are.

Penn (as Marathon):  Nuh uh!

Nick (as Orphan):  Pretty sure.

Penn (as Marathon):  I'm the oldest here. Come on, y'all.

Cameron (as Orphan):  That that is true. 

Sydney (as Orphan):  But if you add all of us together..

Cameron (as Orphan):  I think I I think you need somebody to take care of you. 

Penn (as Marathon):  You wouldn't even know where to go. I led y'all up here.

Nick (as Orphan):  Yeah.

Cameron (as Orphan):  Yeah, but you would have been dead in the Guts without us. 

Sydney (as Orphan):  Yeah you would've been eaten by octopus. 

Cameron (as Orphan):  Like five times.

Penn (as Marathon):  Well, 

Nick (as Orphan):  You may be the oldest, but you're only the second biggest.

Nick:  And he flexes.

Penn (as Marathon):  Well, okay, that's not even objectively true.

Sydney (as Orphan):  What's objective?

Cameron (as Orphan):  Your arm is only that big because it's so puffy.

Nick (as Orphan):  What's truth?

Penn (as Marathon):  Oh god!

Kit (as Nona):  These are the questions that we must ask. These are good questions. These are good instincts. Already so far, I had I had to start the twins up from the beginning. Well, I have my work cut out for me with you all. Who wants cookies?

Sydney (as Orphan):  Me!

Nick (as Orphan):  I do! 

Cameron (as Orphan):  Me, please. 

Kit (as Orphan):  [stuffy] May I please have one?

Penn (as Marathon):  Oh, can I have one? They ate mine from lunch.

Kit (as Nona):  Really? Really? It's like stealing candy from a baby with you, Marathon. 

Kit:  And Nona, as she walks away, holds up Marathon's keys on her finger. 

Nick:  And Marathon, Nona, and the Drain Boys and Jem have a wonderful dinner together as they make plans for the future.

[hurdy gurdy music swells]

Outro:

Penn (as Marathon):  Welcome back folks, you’re tuned to Going the Distance: Traveler’s Guide on road dial 1558. That’s a wrap on today’s log and we’re set to loop after these considerations. Further detail for the following is cataloged in the show notes.

This has been A Knight of Shreds and Patches, an actual play podcast using the Genesys game system from Fantasy Flight Games. The show is edited by Sydney Whittington, and features the talents of:

Kit Adames as Birdie. Kit can be found on Twitter and Instagram @ venusvultures. Kit is also a voice actor for Elevator Pitch Podcast, a queer genre-hopping anthology podcast that can be accessed on Spotify and YouTube.

Penn Van Batavia as Marathon. She can be found on Twitter @ acquiredchaste and in drag as horror king JOHN on Instagram @ john.is.risen. Penn is an indie TTRPG designer whose most recent work includes SLICE IT OUT, a grisly carving RPG about cutting pieces of yourself out to fit in. Check out faer other work at pennharper.itch.io. 

Sydney Whittington as Cassidy. Sydney can be found on our Discord server, which is linked in the show notes, and on Twitter @ sydney_whitt. She’s also a contributing editor and occasional guest player for the Orpheus Protocol, a cosmic horror espionage actual play podcast.

Cameron Robertson as Emma. Cameron can be found on Twitter @ midnightmusic13 and on Instagram @ reading_and_dreaming. Cameron is also a player on Tabletop Squadron, a Star Wars Edge of the Empire actual play podcast.

And Nick Robertson as narrator. Nick can be found on Twitter @ alias58. Nick is also the GM for Tabletop Squadron. Nick can also be found as a player on the Orpheus Protocol.

This podcast features the musical talents of Dora Violet and Arne Parrott. You can find Dora at facebook.com/doraviolett. You can find Arne at atptunes.com.

The official artwork for this podcast was created by Rashed AlAkroka, who can be found on  Instagram and Artstation @ rashedjrs.

You can follow the Patina on Twitter @ akosap_podcast or visit the website: www.akosap.com. To further support the show, consider joining the Patreon at www.patreon.com/AKoSaP, where we’ll be bringing you weekly content including bonus episodes, campfire conversations, and other fun rewards.

Until you tune back…

…stay bold and stay kind