ALEJO: Then Alejo goes to the bay, gets buck naked, and crawls into the tank. “Damn! This is colder than last time. Seriously!”
TUELLER: “It was open to space for a bit, buddy.”
TUELLER: “These things happen.”
STORY: “Space is cold,” Erwin says, then sinks into the water.
MILLICENT: “There wasn’t enough time to add the seat warmer.”
STORY: He pops his head back up. “I just realized those might be my last words and wanted to come back and say something better.”
MILLICENT: “Oh shit me too.”
MILLICENT: “You first.”
STORY: “Well… honestly, now that I’m here I got nothing. Can we go with ‘space is cold’ again?”
STORY: “Space is cold,” he announces formally and then dips under the water.
ALEJO: Alejo dances a bit in the water of the tank before nodding and sinking down slowly. “Space is fucking coooollld.” Alejo finally is in all the way. “Shit.” He puts his head under the water.
STORY: There are little mouthpieces for the humans to get air through, Alejo, so you can pop that in while you float and watch Erwin and wonder which parts of him are representing clothes and why he got to keep his on.
MILLICENT: “I’m going to go with ’The only journey is the one within.”
MILLICENT: “Because I have read a book.”
MILLICENT: Millie grins and ducks under.
TUELLER: Tueller waits until everyone else is underwater, “I love you guys, goddammit.” Then he goes in too.
STORY: “I HEARD THAT,” Figgan shouts over the intercom. It’s the last thing you hear before the water floods your ears.
STORY: Millie! Tueller!
TUELLER: Yes’m.
STORY: You’ve got two siblings in the brig, one unconscious, one comatose.
STORY: There’s also Ryo in the med bay, stabilized but in bad shape.
STORY: Erwin is out of the tank and sitting with his dad.
STORY: Maya doesn’t really know what to do, so she makes sandwiches. They’re not good. She’s 12.
TUELLER: They might be poisoned.
STORY: Figgan stays at her post on the bridge, keeping an eye out.
STORY: What do you do?
TUELLER: “I tried to fix him, but all I’m good for on those grounds is keeping folks alive until someone better comes along.”
MILLICENT: Millie tries to crack into Alejo’s implants and search the code for the rogue code that tried to stop us.
STORY: Assessment + Interface please!
MILLICENT: Millie leans in as she plugs into the node in his neck she’s using. She whispers, “I’ll be gentle, dearest.”
MILLICENT: /roll 2d6 + 2
STORY: josh rolled 7 + 2 = 9
STORY: Nothing in local storage. You’d have no way to tell if there were something that made its way into his subconscious, but presumably he would, and he could tell you about it. And tried to!
MILLICENT: Okay! Millie hits him with something to gently wake him up.
MILLICENT: First she makes coffee.
MILLICENT: So he’ll have coffee!
STORY: Alejo! You wake up to a gentle slap and coffee.
MILLICENT: “Good morning, dear! I made coffee.”
ALEJO: He sits up quickly, realizes where he is, and leans back down, one eye squinted shut. “Ohh, fuck me.” He smiles at her weakly. “As grand romantic gestures go, remind me never to drug myself with whatever that was ever again.”
TUELLER: “I thought it was sweet.”
ALEJO: He slowly sits up and takes a sip of the coffee.
TUELLER: “I’m not a good lodestar, though.”
MILLICENT: “I did too.”
MILLICENT: “A grand gesture indeed!”
MILLICENT: “And I have good news for you. You don’t appear to have any code left in your implants.”
TUELLER: “Do you feel like you want to murder us. Consciously?”
MILLICENT: “If it was ever there there’s a chance it may have found a way to revert to thought patterns and enter your subconscious.”
MILLICENT: “That’s a wild, speculative theory, though.”
TUELLER: “Do you subconsciously want to murder us, then?”
ALEJO: He rubs at his eyes and nods. “That is good news.” He looks at Tueller for a moment.
ALEJO: Then he looks back at his coffee. “No, no murderous, secret longings. At least that I can sense right now.”
MILLICENT: “That’s my guy.” She rubs his back absentmindedly.
TUELLER: “Hmmm. Seems something secret there, buddy.”
ALEJO: He drinks more coffee. “How’s Cali? Still unconscious?”
MILLICENT: Millie nods.
MILLICENT: “Stable, but the same.”
TUELLER: Tueller frowns at the evasion but doesn’t push.
ALEJO: “And Ryo? The kid?”
TUELLER: “Doc tended to you first. We need her to look after Ryo eventually, but he’s stable. Erwin’s with him.
ALEJO: He nods. “Go ahead, Doc. I’m okay.”
MILLICENT: Millie tends to Noma, then Ryo and Erwin.
STORY: Everybody’s stable. Erwin’s in terrible emotional shape, but he won’t let you touch him anyway. He sits in the corner while you examine Ryo.
STORY: No serious lung damage on Ryo, it looks like the doors opened slowly enough to keep that from happening. But his eardrums are burst and he’s got some hypoxia. He’ll need to be on oxygen for a few days at least.
MILLICENT: Millie sets him up.
MILLICENT: Then she teaches Figgan how to change out the oxygen tanks.
STORY: Okay!
STORY: Are you leaving Calixta in the brig, or setting her back up in the med bay with restraints?
STORY: Or a wacky third option?
MILLICENT: Med bay with restraints, I think. It really hurts Millie to lock her down at all, but she has to think about the crew’s safety.
STORY: All right!
STORY: What now?
MILLICENT: Regroup, I think.
MILLICENT: Millie slumps back into the mess, pouring herself a cup of coffee.
MILLICENT: “Ryo’s on oxygen and Figgan knows how to keep him alive. Noma’s restrained in the med bay.”
ALEJO: Alejo is there, finishing a huge plate of eggs and toast.
MILLICENT: “Are you boys ready?”
ALEJO: “What about the rig in the bay? How’d it fare the attempted spacing?”
MILLICENT: Good question, does it look like it’ll still work?
STORY: Yeah, some things got knocked around, but it’s still in working order.
TUELLER: “Erwin is the big question to me.”
TUELLER: “For that. It was traumatic. He was stuck with Ryo passed out at his feet, and left there while…everything else happened.”
MILLICENT: “Yes, dear. It should still work.” She sighs. “Yes, Erwin must have gone through hell.”
MILLICENT: She turns and looks to Alejo.
TUELLER: “Speaking of which, I don’t know about y’all, but I’m going to keep my boarding armor handy. Just in case we still have Ghosts.”
ALEJO: Alejo nods. “We’re out of skip drones, so do we do this without sending the proof?”
ALEJO: “One play would be to wait, get some more, and do this in a couple of weeks? That’d give us time to heal Ryo up and get the kid calmed down.”
ALEJO: “Or, we go big-damned hero style.” He eats the last of his eggs.
ALEJO: “While we still can.”
TUELLER: “We go back and restock, potentially with the threat that we’ll get stopped again, or we stay with this, hopefully isolated system, and pull the trigger, counting on a collective dream of everyone to force the hand.”
ALEJO: He stands, gets more coffee, pours some for Millie and gets a cup for Tueller. “I think we go all in and finish this thing.”
TUELLER: “Oh shit.”
TUELLER: “Guys, we’re idiots.”
MILLICENT: “Yes, let’s. Hey, speak for yourself.”
ALEJO: Alejo nods, matter-of-factly.
TUELLER: “We’re talking about sending proof to the Ark, asking everyone to go there to see the evidence.”
TUELLER: “Every. Single. System. in question has proof.”
TUELLER: “We don’t need to send Alejo’s head. We just need to pass along advice on how to connect an airlock to the relays.”
MILLICENT: “Sure, proof if we convince enough systems to check out their relays and defy the Collective.”
MILLICENT: “And enough might be one, if they could send skip drones.”
ALEJO: Alejo grimaces. “I mean, yes. But wouldn’t breaching the relays be an act of, you know, violence?”
ALEJO: “Isn’t that what we’re trying to avoid? A threat to the Collective?”
TUELLER: “Our cards on the table is a partnership with the Collective. Service on the relays rather than slavery. Voluntary brain wave use to help the Collective exist, in exchange for the relay system. We offered as proof your service as a clone on a relay while a separate clone existed. Practically speaking people are more likely to check the relays rather than the Ark evidence–which we can’t send anyway.”
TUELLER: “But honestly the proof to me is largely EVERYONE HAVING THE SAME DREAM SAYING THAT.”
MILLICENT: “If Noma was able to get a message out then we’re already a threat to the Collective. We have to go make good on that.”
TUELLER: “That there is ACTUAL proof in their system is secondary. Honestly I expect the Collective to respond before people confirm things anyway.”
MILLICENT: “We’re on the clock, like it or not. We don’t have time to start planning again.”
MILLICENT: Millie nods.
MILLICENT: “It’s go or run at this point.”
ALEJO: “Yeah. I think we do the dream thing. We can give people instructions about the relays in the dream and let it be . . . what it’s gonna be.”
TUELLER: “We can’t send that proof to the Ark. But the proof is in every system. We say that, the Collective knows that, and they either deal or launch 1000 ships for every face.”
TUELLER: “…not all my classical references work.”
ALEJO: Alejo nods. “I agree, T. Classical references or not.”
ALEJO: “We gotta get the kid on board.” He sighs. “I’d try talking to him, but he’s kinda freaked out by me. I think you’re up, Doc.”
MILLICENT: Millie laughs, astounded.
MILLICENT: “Me?”
MILLICENT: “He hates me.”
ALEJO: Alejo shrugs. “He hates all of us. I don’t know. If we all press on him, I’m afraid that’ll feel like we’re ganging up.”
MILLICENT: “I guess I can give him the news about Ryo.”
ALEJO: “I can try.” He frowns and sips his coffee.
MILLICENT: “That might help.”
STORY: “What news?”
STORY: Erwin stands in the doorway, arms crossed.
ALEJO: Alejo nods. “Yes.” Then looks over at Erwin. “Heyyyy. Hi. Erwin.”
MILLICENT: “Oh hello there. Erwin.”
MILLICENT: “Ryo is recovering. He does have hypoxia now, which means he’ll need oxygen for a few days. And his eardrums are burst. A ruptured eardrum is vulnerable to infections as well, so we’ll watch him for that. He should recover most of his hearing and all of his lung capacity.”
MILLICENT: “I’ve taught Figgan how to change out his tanks and she knows if he has a fever to administer broad-range anti-biotic.”
MILLICENT: “He’ll be okay, Erwin. Ryo should fully recover.”
STORY: Erwin nods, still looking tense.
STORY: “Is the danger over?”
MILLICENT: Millie can’t help letting out a short bark of a laugh.
MILLICENT: “Dear me, no.”
ALEJO: “Not even close, kid.”
TUELLER: “Guys.”
TUELLER: “Come on. How do I have the best bedside manner here?”
MILLICENT: “Because I don’t want to lie to Erwin. I believe we owe him the truth.”
STORY: “Christ, I meant is whatever attacked the ship handled.”
STORY: “I know I’m going to die.”
STORY: “Let’s just make it worth it.”
STORY: He leaves the room.
MILLICENT: “Oh, yes, I think that the immediate danger has oh goodbye then.”
ALEJO: “Kid’s tough. I like him.” Alejo finishes the last of his coffee and gets a third cup.
MILLICENT: “Okay that went better than I thought.”
TUELLER: “That went terrible.”
MILLICENT: Millie nods.
TUELLER: Tueller leaves the room and follows Erwin.
TUELLER: “Er, wait up.”
ALEJO: Alejo smiles. “That went very well. I kinda like setting T up to be the good guy.”
MILLICENT: “Is that what we were doing?”
ALEJO: “It’s what I was doing.” He smiles at her and gives her a quick kiss.
MILLICENT: Millie smiles. “Okay.”
STORY: Tueller, you catch him going back down the the cargo bay.
TUELLER: Tueller eases up and sidles up next to him, giving him space but matching his speed. “Sorry. We’re all bad at this.”
TUELLER: “Want to talk about it?”
TUELLER: “Doc Bolano says we should talk it out, at least. She didn’t specifically prepare me for THIS, but talking in general.”
STORY: “What’s there to talk about? My dad’s dead, my other dad’s hurt, I’ll probably die doing this. We all die eventually.”
STORY: “I’m serious about making it worth it. If we can free the grell, or everyone – then fine.”
STORY: He shrugs. “We don’t live that long anyway.”
TUELLER: “Okay. Alejo’s the one who’s good with inspiring speeches, but…well, speeches are often inspiring because they’re lies. Here’s what I got, though. I can’t promise we’ll live. Any of us. But freedom, dignity, and the lives of others–our family, friends, species, etc, that’s what we’re doing this for.”
TUELLER: “Because we feel it’s the right thing for us to do for an uncountable number of people.”
TUELLER: “And I will fight to the end of my life for your life, and for all of them.”
STORY: Erwin looks at you with a pursed mouth and raised eyebrows.
STORY: “Yeah.”
STORY: “That’s what I said.”
TUELLER: “Sorry. I tend to talk too much.”
STORY: “You didn’t used to.”
TUELLER: “I gotta do something instead of punching people through the brain.”
TUELLER: “That’s as good of a segue as any: anything else do you need from me?”
STORY: “Nah. I mean. Take care of Ryo, if he wakes up. He likes working for you.”
STORY: “Even if he complains about it a lot.”
STORY: “And tell him I did a good job even if I don’t. He doesn’t need to know if I fuck it up.”
STORY: “Although I guess if I fuck it up we all die, so. Nevermind.”
STORY: He scratches his head.
STORY: You’re always a little amazed when he performs unconscious human behaviors like that. Thinking about what he’s actually doing is too confusing.
TUELLER: “Do your best. That’s all.”
TUELLER: “You got this.”
TUELLER: Uh, how is this supposed to happen?
TUELLER: We were all going into the dream with him?
STORY: Yeah!
STORY: Four people in tanks, nappin’.
TUELLER: “Let me know when you’re ready for us, and we’ll suit up.”
STORY: Oh also you don’t have an AI to monitor your life signs and pull you out if things get hairy.
TUELLER: Oh hey weird how that happened.
TUELLER: Unless we want to talk our other AI guy…
TUELLER: WHICH WE DON’T.
MILLICENT: Yeah let’s leave him in the deep chill
STORY: So?
MILLICENT: Millie’s ready.
TUELLER: Well, Tueller’s ready to go, just waiting for the nod from Erwin.
MILLICENT: She has a tactical wee and she’s ready to take the message to the masses.
STORY: Erwin’s ready! He’s downright impatient.
TUELLER: Tueller hits the intercom up, “Let’s get into the pods, guys.”
TUELLER: “Rip the bandage off.”
ALEJO: Alejo goes to talk to Maya, giving her a very brief idea of what’s going on. “If I don’t make it back, Figgan will help you.”
STORY: “I will??”
STORY: “Okay fine, I’ll have a spy kid. Good luck, boss.”
STORY: “Don’t get us killed, ok?”
TUELLER: NO PROMISES.
ALEJO: He ruffles Maya’s hair. Smiles at Fig. “See you both soon.”
TUELLER: YOU’RE IN THE ENDGAME NOW, NPC.
MILLICENT: Here we go, Peregrine, here we go!
TUELLER: “Take a nap if you want to see the fireworks.”
ALEJO: Then Alejo goes to the bay, gets buck naked, and crawls into the tank. “Damn! This is colder than last time. Seriously!”
TUELLER: “It was open to space for a bit, buddy.”
TUELLER: “These things happen.”
STORY: “Space is cold,” Erwin says, then sinks into the water.
MILLICENT: “There wasn’t enough time to add the seat warmer.”
STORY: He pops his head back up. “I just realized those might be my last words and wanted to come back and say something better.”
MILLICENT: “Oh shit me too.”
MILLICENT: “You first.”
STORY: “Well, honestly now that I’m here I got nothing. Can we go with ‘space is cold’ again?”
STORY: “Space is cold,” he announces formally and then dips under the water.
ALEJO: Alejo dances a bit in the water of the tank before nodding and sinking down slowly. “Space is fucking coooollld.” Alejo finally is in all the way. “Shit.” He puts his head under the water.
STORY: There are little mouthpieces for the humans to get air through, Alejo, so you can pop that in while you float and watch Erwin and wonder which parts of him are representing clothes and why he got to keep his on.
MILLICENT: “I’m going to go with ’The only journey is the one within.”
MILLICENT: “Because I have read a book.”
MILLICENT: Millie grins and ducks under.
TUELLER: Tueller waits until everyone else is underwater, “I love you guys, goddammit.” Then he goes in too.
STORY: “I HEARD THAT,” Figgan shouts over the intercom. It’s the last thing you hear before the water floods your ears.
STORY: You know the drill. You hook up to the mouthpieces, start breathing regularly, get all floaty and sleepy, and the drugs kick in and put you under.
STORY: With Erwin along for the ride, you find you have a lot more control over what’s going on. So.
STORY: Alejo, where do you wake up?
ALEJO: In the beach house that he’s woken up in when visiting the Weave before. A warm, ocean smell is blowing in through the open window.
STORY: It’s calm, and the salt air is refreshing.
STORY: Millie walks in from the kitchen, barefoot.
ALEJO: “Hi,” Alejo sits up on his elbows.
STORY: “Oh, this is nice.” Deep breath of ocean air. “Very nice. I could get used to this.”
ALEJO: Alejo slides out from the sheets, sitting on the edge of the bed, planting both feet on the hardwood floor. “Yeah. Me too.” He stands and turns to face Millie. He looks at her for a long moment. “She really is spectacular. The real Millie. You almost have the curve of her lip right.”
STORY: “The curve of the lip?” Millie smiles despite herself. “Go on.”
ALEJO: “When she has that sweet but slightly arrogant smile, knowing she’s the smartest person in the room. Like a bad poker player who has a lot of fun knowing that they’ve been dealt a great hand.”
ALEJO: He steps closer to her. “Why do I always wake up here?”
STORY: “You’d have to tell me. But where’s that poetry most of the time? I get a lot of ‘dears’ and ‘honeys’, but I want to hear more about how I’m a wicked poker player with a great hand. It’s fabulous, really.” Millie pushes past him and examines the apartment. “Is this where you always wake up?”
STORY: Tueller steps in the open french doors from the beach.
ALEJO: Alejo is standing there naked. He glances at Mille and then Tueller. “Hey T.”
ALEJO: He smiles. Then goes to the dresser and takes out a pair of pants and slips them on.
STORY: Tueller looks around. “Huh, this isn’t my doing.”
ALEJO: “This is where I always wake up, in the Weave. Don’t know why. Never actually been to a real beach.”
STORY: Millie, to Tueller: “Do you always wake up here too?”
STORY: “I keep getting this quaint dual-star system meteor garden. I mean, it’s cute and so peaceful, but I think I’d go a little mad with a place that calm, you know?” Millie is examining the decor and clearly judging some to her taste and some not.
STORY: Tueller, to Alejo: “Me neither. Never went down to a mudball. A beach never made sense to me. It’s where dirt meets water.”
ALEJO: Alejo nods. “But it’s stupid beautiful. At least in this . . . dream.” He finds a tee and puts it on. “So, are you both really here? I?” He looks Tueller up and down. “You look exactly like him. It’s uncanny.”
ALEJO: He shakes his head. “We’ve never woken up in the same place. Together.” He looks at them skeptically.
TUELLER: “We got a driver now.”
MILLICENT: “Oh honey, do you keep waking up with versions of me here?”
MILLICENT: “That’s sweet.”
TUELLER: “And with versions of me!”
STORY: Erwin sits up in bed. “Sorry I’m late.”
STORY: “Had to get some things straight.”
TUELLER: “Hey Erwin!” Tueller is excited to see him and doesn’t hide it.
ALEJO: Alejo laughs. “Versions of you, for sure,” he smiles at Millie. “But they don’t hold a candle.”
STORY: “Beaches are nice.”
ALEJO: “I’m really glad to see you all. This place sucks.”
STORY: “What are we doing here?”
ALEJO: “I mean, in a really creepy, beautiful way.” He looks at Erwin. “No clue. I’m not driving this bus.”
ALEJO: He startles. “Am I?”
TUELLER: “As far as I can tell, this is Alejo’s dream setup, and he’s paranoid nothing is real.”
STORY: Erwin nods. “Yeah dude. We’re lucid here.”
STORY: “We go wherever you want.”
MILLICENT: Millie waves.
ALEJO: “Nice. Cool, cool, cool.”
ALEJO: “Okay, so . . . I mean, how do we broadcast our dream message? What now?”
MILLICENT: Millie turns to Erwin.
STORY: “Well. Hm.”
STORY: “I think first we’ve gotta find the Grell, then we’ve gotta find everyone else.”
ALEJO: He looks down at his tee shirt and linen beach pants. “And do I have to do this message in these clothes?”
STORY: “It’s flexible here. Abstract, you know?”
STORY: As soon as you object to your clothes, Alejo, you’re dressed exactly how you want to be dressed.
TUELLER: “Let’s go meet up with our Grell friends!”
ALEJO: Alejo nods. Then looks down and sort of half jumps, startled again. “Whoa. Okay. Right. Right.”
MILLICENT: Millie focuses and changes her clothes to be dressed in the outfit she wore to defend her fourth doctorate.
STORY: Millie looks sharp!
TUELLER: Tueller’s in a midnight blue tux.
ALEJO: “You need to wear that for me when we get outta here,” Alejo whispers to her.
MILLICENT: Millie nods and grins and makes a mental note.
STORY: “Okay, so. I mean.”
MILLICENT: She focuses and the heels grow 2 inches.
STORY: Erwin crawls out of the bed, finally, standing awkwardly between you.
STORY: “The grell, it’s like… a party?”
ALEJO: Alejo is in a simple black suit with a vest, a dark shirt, and no tie.
STORY: “And we don’t have invites. I mean, I do. But you guys…”
STORY: “So we have to figure out how to sneak in?”
STORY: “That’s a good metaphor, let’s do that.”
STORY: And before you realize it’s happening, you’re standing outside on a suburban street, the night sky above, crickets screaming.
STORY: Four houses down, a party is bumping.
STORY: People stream in and out, some chat in the yard, others pull up and head straight in the front door. Everyone is a teenager.
STORY: The music is loud, and you smell weed.
STORY: What do you do?
ALEJO: Alejo smiles. “This is so much better with a guide.”
ALEJO: “Who’s not trying to, you know, kill you.”
MILLICENT: Millie looks down at herself. This won’t do. She focuses and becomes Teenager Millie.
MILLICENT: Captain of the Dork Patrol. Probably already in university. Huge future space glasses.
TUELLER: Tueller transforms himself into a teen. His clothes shift as well into a ripped flannel shirt and jeans.
STORY: Millie is the only one of you to ever go to a party on Earth, but it wasn’t like this either. These are purely images Erwin got from watching old movies.
TUELLER: “I liked that tux,” he says, sadly.
ALEJO: Alejo looks at her for a moment. Laughs. “You were hot even back in the day.” Alejo too transforms into a seventeen-year-old version of himself.
STORY: “Sorry. Okay, so you get it?”
MILLICENT: “I think so.”
STORY: “You’ve got what you need when everybody at this party fucking loves you.”
STORY: “And remember, they’re not experiencing this literally, so you can’t just go explain who you are. It’s about going with the flow.”
TUELLER: Tueller raises a six pack of beer. “On it!”
STORY: “This guy knows.” Erwin offers you a fist bump.
ALEJO: Alejo rolls a joint. And nods.
MILLICENT: “I’m going to let everyone else lead.”
MILLICENT: “This is decidedly not my element.”
STORY: Okay!
STORY: What’s everyone’s approach?
TUELLER: Tueller’s going with what worked for him in high school: just knowing that he’s the coolest goddamn guy on the planet who everyone loves.
TUELLER: And mingling.
STORY: Okay, so the Jock approaches straight through the front door with his six pack.
ALEJO: Alejo is super relaxed. He’s open and outgoing, but he lets the party come to him because he is actually, you know, the coolest guy in the room.
STORY: The Slacker heads in through the side yard, hanging out with the kids by the pool. Maybe he finds a swing to sit in as he passes the joint around.
STORY: Nerd, what are you doing?
MILLICENT: Millie arrives with a book sticking out of her purse, a tasteful flower arrangement and a wine cooler she found in the back of the fridge and deliberated on bringing for forty minutes. She rings the actual doorbell.
STORY: All right! Hey Jock, you’ve found the real center of the party, the sunken living room where people are piled into couches, a few dance, mostly it’s just kids drinking and hanging out. What do you do?
TUELLER: “Hey, anyone need a refill from the fridge; I’m buying.”
TUELLER: Tueller makes eye contact with anyone who look his way, all smiles and friendliness.
TUELLER: “I’m T. How all y’all doing?”
STORY: They seem unimpressed and go back to their conversations. You’re going to need to go big to get their attention.
TUELLER: Tueller looks from face to face, smile frozen on his face, “Alright, alright, tough room. Let’s see, here’s what we’re going to do. Tueller goes over to the games cabinet and pulls out a deck of cards. “It’s a little cheesy and kind of freshman ice breaker type thing, but CLEARLY what we need is a drinking game.” He grabs the couches, and with people still on them, drags them to rearrange so everyone’s around a table. Without waiting for people to respond he deals out seven cards to everyone seated there, “Okay, we’re going right, one through fives are assign drinks, as many as on the face cards, seven is fizzbuzz and I’ll tell you what that means then, any face cards means we play Neve Have I Ever for a Round around the table, and tens means you get to make up a new rule, you’re to my left, my lovely soon to be friend, you go first.”
STORY: Let’s do this! FA + Influence!!
TUELLER: /roll 2d6
STORY: chris.stuart rolled 5
STORY: Slacker!
STORY: What’s your approach?
STORY: There are a few dozen kids out back, they’re the chiller branch of the party. Most people are listening to music, a few are making out in the pool, others chat and drink quietly.
ALEJO: Alejo approaches a group of kids sitting on lounges or near them by the pool. “Hey,” he smiles and sits down. He lights the joint and offers it to the girl sitting next to him. “I’m Alejo.”
STORY: She takes it, has a drag. “Hey.”
ALEJO: He starts rolling another joint. “Sounds like the party’s wild in there. This is definitely more my speed.”
ALEJO: He lights it and offers it to the guy on his other side. “This shit is real. I’ve never had anything like it before.”
STORY: Okay! You do your best to chill and drug everyone into your orbit. FA + Influence!
ALEJO: /roll 2d6+2
STORY: ablair01 rolled 8 + 2 = 10
ALEJO: Alejo smiles and takes a drag on the third joint he rolls.
STORY: Backyard is on lock.
STORY: HEY NERD
STORY: You ring the doorbell. It is answered by ANOTHER NERD. You two look at each other with recognition.
STORY: “C’mon,” the Nerd says conspiratorially, and leads you upstairs.
STORY: There are a dozen people up here, all sitting around playing board games. They look up at you expectantly when you arrive.
STORY: What do you do?
MILLICENT: “Ladies, gentlemen. We could stay up here all evening playing, oh is that Eclipse 3099? Sorry, never mind. We could stay up here all evening playing games. But I saw a half dozen bongs with filters than inhibit full drags. I saw a stereo that could literally shake the walls if the subwoofer was calibrated. I saw warm beers going into a fridge to sit for twenty minutes until someone gets impatient and drinks a warm beer. In short, I saw opportunity. And before me, I see the future kings and queens of this party. I see legends. We could hide away or we could make these plebes see the value of doing our physics homework.”
MILLICENT: “What say you, fellows?”
MILLICENT: If I don’t get a bonus for “What say you” I swear to God
STORY: This is a good speech! Please roll FA + Influence to see how it lands.
STORY: Just a reminder that you all have Close Ups you could be using literally anytime
MILLICENT: /roll 2d6 + 1
STORY: josh rolled 8 + 1 = 9
MILLICENT: aw dang I used my Close Up for that
ALEJO: Legends are born.
STORY: All right, huzzah! You convince half of them immediately, but the others reallllly want to stay back and finish Eclipse 3099.
STORY: “Hey, do you want to play?”
MILLICENT: “I want to make a six person waterpipe that will be talked about until college graduation!” Millie leads the nerds out into the party, but sneaks back, sticks her head in the door, “I’ve got next game.”
STORY: Okay! The good news is the party hasn’t gone totally south yet, but when you head downstairs you find Tueller looking pretty dejected. He’s been turned away by the cool kids.
STORY: You also catch Alejo out back, the center of everyone’s attention. He’s telling some laid back story and everyone is rapt.
STORY: So at least that is on lock.
STORY: Millie, Tueller, you’ve got a half dozen nerds and 40 cool kids who want to PARTY.
STORY: What do you do with them?
TUELLER: Tueller’s walked away from the dude of a card game under the pretense of getting another beer but really it’s just to assuage his ego.
TUELLER: Tueller comes back in and fiddles with the stereo and turns it UP and starts to just dance.
TUELLER: Cool kids don’t try to be cool. They’re just cool and people flock to them. I’ve heard.
MILLICENT: Millie juices the pressure on the hose out back, salvages some tarps and creates a wicked slip n’slide in the backyard.
TUELLER: —Oh, so Millie was LYING about juicing the subwoofer?
STORY: YEAH. Tueller, that’s gonna be a FA + Physique. Dance your heart out, little buddy!
TUELLER: Uh, yeah, so , Close Up.
TUELLER: /roll 2d6+3
STORY: chris.stuart rolled 4 + 3 = 7
TUELLER: Good thing, too.
STORY: For real!
STORY: Millie, this is going to be FA + Expertise please.
MILLICENT: /roll 2d6 + 2
STORY: josh rolled 5 + 2 = 7
MILLICENT: Millie sent some nerds to juice the subwoofer, she had other work to do.
STORY: Okay. Tueller gets the dancing started, then notices half the crowd has peeled out into the backyard to check out the rad-ass slip and slide that goes into the pool. Alejo, some of your crowd do the same and jump in.
STORY: The three of you find each other again, and Erwin taps you on the back, Tueller.
TUELLER: “sup?”
STORY: He gestures an introduction. “Tueller, this is Yakami. She’s in charge.”
STORY: Yakami nods to the three of you. “You have our attention. Erwin has told us your plan.”
STORY: “Do you really think it’s going to work?”
TUELLER: “Yes.”
MILLICENT: Millie nods. “Yes.”
ALEJO: Alejo looks at them both and then nods. “Yeah.”
TUELLER: Tueller opens his mouth to say more, but then closes it and nods.
STORY: “You’re asking us to risk our lives to save your people.”
TUELLER: “To save all of our people.”
ALEJO: “If this works, it’ll take pressure off the Weave and help the Grell as well. But, yeah. We’re asking a lot. To save a galaxy of people.”
TUELLER: “The Grell understand more than maybe anyone how we’re all interconnected.”
STORY: She nods.
STORY: “Good luck.” She surveys the party. “Everyone. Into the pool.”
STORY: Though she speaks at a normal volume, somehow everyone hears her, and within moments there are literally thousands of people in the pool.
TUELLER: “Us too?”
STORY: You have absolutely no idea how they fit.
TUELLER: DREAMS!
STORY: She nods.
TUELLER: Tueller follows them in.
ALEJO: Alejo jumps in.
MILLICENT: Millie holds her nose and jumps in
STORY: Erwin steps in, unafraid to touch anyone in this environment. The people in the pool all rub against each other comfortably.
STORY: Yakami steps in, and you feel a sudden focus, like the lights just got turned up brighter.
STORY: And a clarity – you’re not in the pool anymore.
STORY: Alejo, you hear Erwin in your ear. “Imagine they’re all with you. Everyone you want to reach.”
TUELLER: Tueller pictures galaxies.
TUELLER: The galactic core, where he spent time on his own in the constant light, all the way out to the rim.
ALEJO: Alejo nods. “Thank you, Erwin. For doing this.” Alejo closes his eyes for a moment and imagines all the places he’s been and more, trying to think of everyone who’s asleep all around the galaxy.
MILLICENT: Millie imagines systems spinning and dancing, and broadly, expanding. She tries to encompass all she knows of the expanding universe.
STORY: Alejo, everyone around you falls away and you’re alone, just floating safely in space. It’s black all around you.
STORY: And yet you feel connected, to billions of tiny, imperceptible threads. They’re invisible, but they pull at you, gently.
STORY: An old fashioned microphone floats in front of you.
STORY: Your audience is assembled. What do you do?
ALEJO: Alejo floats to the mic, adjusts his jacket, and then smiles brightly. He takes the mic. “Good evening. My name is Alejo Soto, and this is going to be the most important dream you’ve ever had.”