transcript
Speaker 1:
[00:03] This is the sound of Worlds Beyond Number. Ghenopaar is a Class I developed asteroid in unattributed space of just under 3.5 square kilometers. It is owned and operated collectively by roughly 20% of the former companions of Telegen, with a majority stake held by Chi Tanka. Independent governance has made the asteroid an infamous destination as a luxury resort, a den of merry vices and a gray market hub. The owners and operators of Ghenopaar have been made alluringly wealthier in the two years since its creation, but wolves have always been at the gates. Criminal organizations and gangs of all sorts have made attempts to strong-arm the owners. But it is the threat posed by the advent of the directive for federal institution, the Durali, and the drawing of borders across occupied space that keeps Chi up at night. And even here, in the darkness of space, it is the dark of night. Chi, where do we find you?
Speaker 2:
[02:31] You first see Chi, her long, smooth, straight teal hair, red bow lips and gentle brown eyes. Well, normally they would be gentle, but now that gaze is steely. She's in a black leather body suit and she is a stride of man, knife to his throat.
Speaker 1:
[03:01] The man under you looks terrified, awed, soaked in sweat, and absolutely enraptured. This is Mehran Simir X, an attendant of Clan Koga, who amongst having a predilection for extraordinary amounts of danger and well-preconsented bloodworks has been a fan of the stories of Tellegen's self-liberation just a few years ago and wanted to live the scandal himself.
Speaker 2:
[03:40] Did you think that we would not rise up to throw off your shackles? No, you do not own us. You do not own our bodies. You do not own our will.
Speaker 3:
[03:53] I need you to start off with a role immediately.
Speaker 1:
[03:57] Go ahead and give me a charm roll. This is... Oh, gee. How many times have you run this script? I'm going to say this is not impossible for you, but I want a charm roll. The difficulty is going to be a six. But I just want to see how you can stay in character and not lose yourself to the actual memory.
Speaker 2:
[04:22] Six.
Speaker 1:
[04:25] You feel it. That pulse across your heart. You can feel all of the synth inside of you beginning to spin up, that fight or flight. You feel yourself moving back into that place. But then you look down at this man's face. He's so much younger than the men that you fought. Unscarred, unblemished, his skin is dark and smooth. His eyes are wide with longing and not fear and surprise at a coup gone horribly wrong. You know that this is not that night, but your body is forgetting in this moment, even as you feel him clutch at your hips and moan for more.
Speaker 2:
[05:21] Never again! And I slash the knife across his throat.
Speaker 1:
[05:31] Okay, question, is this a trick knife?
Speaker 2:
[05:35] I assume he has the requisite synth patch?
Speaker 1:
[05:45] How often have you worked with Mehran? Is this your first time with him?
Speaker 2:
[05:50] This is the culmination of a long and very well-regulated interaction that we've had. It has been through text. It has been via a hologram. It has been via courier, mine to his, his to mine. And this has all been scripted out incredibly thoughtfully.
Speaker 1:
[06:14] Okay, then my question to you is, you've done this for more of your life than you would probably care to mention. And at this point, a synth patch is something you would do with a casual lover of the bladed arts. But this is a well-curated, well-moneyed client. You could slice his throat and, having set up proper protocols, bring him back. So what level of fidelity would you have brought into this encounter?
Speaker 2:
[06:47] Ah, that's right. This is not the normal script. This is from somebody who would spend orm. So naturally, I go for the throat.
Speaker 1:
[06:59] Yes, with a slice perfectly aimed so that you nick his artery and you get that first beautiful arterial spray and you see the panic and ecstasy in his eyes begin to turn to something closer to mortal fear.
Speaker 2:
[07:14] I let it spray across my face. My eyes wild.
Speaker 1:
[07:22] He begins to look at you and he grabs at his throat, realizing that he didn't get the patch. You see him begin to actually panic in this moment. There's something about pre-negotiating and being eased into a high difficulty scenario versus actually being in it. So you see your client. He's beginning to falter. I mean, not from the waist down. You see his eyes are beginning to flit away from you. They're not staring at you. And the beautiful artistic moment you've curated. He's beginning to falter. What do you do?
Speaker 2:
[08:05] I've timed this out perfectly in my head. I lean in close and I whisper, I will never be yours. And then I grab for the Stimpak next to my bed.
Speaker 1:
[08:16] Yeah. Okay. I want you to tell me what you would like to roll in this moment, because he is beginning to panic. So this is either going to be a charm roll. I'm going to say the difficulty is going to be an eight no matter what. This is either a charm roll to allay his fears as you casually reach for the Stimpak or a movement roll to try to do this quickly before you see that he's like reaching out to like grasp at you, push you away, go get the Stimpak himself.
Speaker 2:
[08:47] It'll be charm.
Speaker 1:
[08:48] Okay.
Speaker 2:
[08:51] Nine.
Speaker 1:
[08:52] Okay. You see him begin to like clutch towards you and his eyes are looking over at the Stimpak. What do you do to bring him back to this moment?
Speaker 2:
[09:01] I place my hand over the wound and I go shh, shh, shh. And one handed without looking, I grab the Stimpak next to me, I patch it over the wound and I whisper, it's all right, are you all right?
Speaker 1:
[09:17] And he looks at you more closely and there's a little flicker in the lights across the room you are working in, not your room, but your room. A little, almost like fireflies dancing at the very edges of the lanterns that you have up and they flicker from like a pale, calm gold to a green, then a yellow, then a red. A reminder that this is still a safe environment and that he is being asked specifically to check in. Even as he is still sort of bleeding, as the like stem patch settles in and begins to knit his flesh back together, he nods. Green, up green.
Speaker 2:
[10:00] Okay, good. Then let's continue.
Speaker 1:
[10:05] It's right about this time that you get just a little hint, a little squeal of interference in the calms in your ear. And you hear a very friendly voice.
Speaker 2:
[10:17] Hey, go ahead. Go for G.
Speaker 1:
[10:19] Hi. Yeah, it's me. Do I have to explain who I am? It's me.
Speaker 2:
[10:25] Hold on one minute. I'm talking with my fellow revolutionaries.
Speaker 3:
[10:29] What's up? You actually see that Mehran like nods. And now that he is no longer afraid that he's going to bleed out and die, it's sort of settling back.
Speaker 1:
[10:40] Oppressive pig?
Speaker 3:
[10:41] Yeah, you give him a little kick in the ribs, and he's very clearly dropped back into the scene, and you see his eyes kind of glaze over again.
Speaker 1:
[10:49] What's up? Hi, I'm just about to get up to the void. Do you need to stop for anything?
Speaker 2:
[10:55] Oh, no, no, I'm fine. I'm taking care of business.
Speaker 1:
[11:00] Oh, yeah, paperwork yet?
Speaker 2:
[11:02] Wait.
Speaker 1:
[11:03] Oh, are you in the middle of it?
Speaker 2:
[11:05] Yeah, the cover.
Speaker 1:
[11:06] Oh, my God. Wait, hold on. Put me on. Put me on. Put me on.
Speaker 2:
[11:09] Really? All right. You do it.
Speaker 1:
[11:10] OK.
Speaker 2:
[11:12] I click it on so that he's able to hear it.
Speaker 1:
[11:14] Fuck you.
Speaker 3:
[11:14] We'll kill you.
Speaker 1:
[11:16] Turn it off. Turn it off. Turn it off.
Speaker 2:
[11:18] All right. All right. All right.
Speaker 1:
[11:19] I've been, you know, I probably will have to go stop by a vice room a little bit to keep this party going. But when do you think you're going to be free?
Speaker 2:
[11:27] Um, give me. I mean, when do you want me to be free?
Speaker 1:
[11:32] I don't know. You said that this is a COGA, right?
Speaker 2:
[11:34] Yeah.
Speaker 1:
[11:34] Like an actual one with the last name or just the one with the last?
Speaker 2:
[11:37] He likes when I put him in his place. Am I right?
Speaker 1:
[11:42] At this point, you see Mayeron look up at you and he's like, I can't tell if I'm being addressed right now or you're just.
Speaker 2:
[11:48] He loves it. Yeah. No. Yeah.
Speaker 1:
[11:51] I don't know.
Speaker 2:
[11:53] Give me 10. Oh, sure. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1:
[11:57] Where do you want to meet?
Speaker 2:
[11:59] Let's say your place.
Speaker 1:
[12:02] Oh, great. Well, just meet me. Meet me at the ship.
Speaker 2:
[12:06] Oh.
Speaker 1:
[12:07] Does that make sense?
Speaker 2:
[12:08] Much better. OK. Great. Thank you. Love you.
Speaker 1:
[12:10] Bye. Love you. Bye. Have fun. And as you switch off from this call, you actually hear that there's been like another call. You're getting another beat waiting. This one more polite that's going to wait for you to actually like pick up the call. Or not.
Speaker 2:
[12:26] Oh, all right. Yes. I click on over to it as I put a stilettoed heel on his chest.
Speaker 1:
[12:34] OK. What? No, no. I'm going to make you answer. What positioning is happening right now? Are you just sort of standing over a bleeding man?
Speaker 2:
[12:42] Uh, yes. Yes. I mean, he's no longer bleeding actively. He's just pooled in blood.
Speaker 1:
[12:47] All right. OK. So you've sort of paused in the middle of a murder scene to take a series of phone calls. Great. The stiletto at his throat has really sent him into a place that he's not really following continuity anymore. This is good for him.
Speaker 2:
[13:04] Yes.
Speaker 1:
[13:05] Not going to make you roll for that. And you just hear the sort of bumbling beginnings of who you know to be Dhruv, your personnel security head.
Speaker 2:
[13:15] Hello, Dhruv.
Speaker 1:
[13:16] Hi. I'm so sorry to disrupt you. No, no, no, no worries.
Speaker 2:
[13:19] Is anything the matter?
Speaker 1:
[13:23] We hit a threshold of disruptions over the sin fights that I...
Speaker 2:
[13:28] Disruptions?
Speaker 1:
[13:30] Fights, ma'am.
Speaker 2:
[13:32] Oh, I see. Oh, right. Well, Ayasa's on the way, so I'll swing by there before I see her.
Speaker 1:
[13:39] Okay. Well, it's not really like a thing you can...
Speaker 2:
[13:46] Oh.
Speaker 1:
[13:47] I'm just looking for authorization.
Speaker 2:
[13:50] Take care of it.
Speaker 1:
[13:52] Take care of it?
Speaker 2:
[13:53] Yes, thank you.
Speaker 1:
[13:55] Okay, I just want to be very clear. How I take care of it or how Conan takes care of it?
Speaker 2:
[14:01] There are times that I wish that I had help with delegation. And this is definitely one of those times. Do I know what sort of interruption he's referring to?
Speaker 1:
[14:17] Yeah. Essentially, and this is a thing that happens almost on a daily basis. The synth fights tend to be routier than the other, like gambling sports in that sector of Ghenopaar. And usually people break into fights while watching fighting. You've established a protocol probably three or four months ago that like at a certain enthusiasm of brawl that you need to be notified. And unfortunately, Dhruv is a person that moves by the letter of the law. So there must be exactly 30 people fighting in a hall full of five to six thousand right now.
Speaker 2:
[14:53] Oh, I see. Well, in that case, I would send out an EMP and that'll take care of at least five of the altercations.
Speaker 1:
[15:05] Okay, so you want me to handle it how Conan would handle it?
Speaker 2:
[15:07] Yes.
Speaker 1:
[15:08] Fine.
Speaker 2:
[15:09] Don't worry.
Speaker 1:
[15:09] I mean, it's...
Speaker 2:
[15:10] You'll have your turn.
Speaker 1:
[15:12] I'm proud of it.
Speaker 2:
[15:13] You are doing a good... Thank you.
Speaker 1:
[15:15] Thank you, ma'am.
Speaker 3:
[15:17] It immediately clicks off.
Speaker 2:
[15:20] All right. Where were we?
Speaker 1:
[15:21] Yeah, you look down and, Maren, how do I put this? Is done.
Speaker 2:
[15:28] Okay.
Speaker 3:
[15:29] In the intervening time.
Speaker 1:
[15:31] And you see him beginning to sort of like... He's sagging underneath your heel and is just sort of relaxing into the plushness of the bed.
Speaker 2:
[15:39] Oh, all right. Well, I remove my foot from his chest and I settle back down onto the chair next to the bed.
Speaker 1:
[15:49] That was, um, that was amazing. I didn't think it could feel so real. I thought I was going to actually... You're as good as they say.
Speaker 2:
[16:04] You're very kind. I'm... I really owe a lot of it to your good communication and the lengths that you were willing to travel to be here.
Speaker 1:
[16:14] It was the opportunity of a lifetime. I'm happy to have done it.
Speaker 3:
[16:21] Well.
Speaker 2:
[16:22] And as we speak, I pass my hand through my hair and somehow it grows shorter, tapers off in front but gets higher in the back. It's black. And the eyes, my eyes shift a little bit. They're less brown. They're a bit wider. Well, now that we have been formally introduced.
Speaker 1:
[16:54] What's with the introduction?
Speaker 2:
[16:56] I was wondering if you would be open to a conversation about Ghenopaar.
Speaker 1:
[17:03] Oh, yes. You have a beautiful facility here.
Speaker 2:
[17:09] And we want to create these kinds of facilities with these kinds of experiences all over Ghenopaar. And in order to keep the Federation from sticking their noses where they're not wanted, we require a certain amount of sponsorship from patrons such as yourself.
Speaker 4:
[17:30] Oh, I...
Speaker 1:
[17:32] And at this, you see that though his skin is very dark, he's beginning to blush. I think you can feel maybe like heat, like heat and discomfort starting to rise off of him just a little bit.
Speaker 2:
[17:46] I don't... Listen, you know, all this revolutionary talk is, I realize, you know, maybe a bit much.
Speaker 1:
[17:58] No, I don't think it's...
Speaker 2:
[17:59] I just figured that since you were very into this, that you would want to help continue the narrative.
Speaker 1:
[18:07] Yes, of course. I can't imagine what this new, brave galaxy would be like without a place like this here. But, you know, with the Durali coming online, you're looking for sponsorship, are you? Are you seeking Clan Koga's? Are you trying to bend the knee?
Speaker 2:
[18:38] Oh, well, as...
Speaker 1:
[18:41] I think that's the easiest sell I've ever had, and I would run that up the chain immediately.
Speaker 2:
[18:45] Oh, well, I don't know if I would be seeking that from you, because I don't know that necessarily you would enjoy that sort of interaction. I think more of something along the lines of a partnership or a working business agreement would be a much more fun story.
Speaker 1:
[19:10] Well, I do know the difference between what is fun for me and what is fun for...
Speaker 2:
[19:19] The family, yes...
Speaker 1:
[19:21] .those that run my family might vary slightly, but...
Speaker 2:
[19:26] Well, then why don't you and I continue to have the kind of fun you would like to have while they take care of the fun that they like to have? But we can discuss at a later time.
Speaker 1:
[19:39] Oh, yes. Speaking of Wythe, and you see that he reaches over to a tablet and just, without looking, types in maybe 20 to 30 characters to finish a transaction. This has been, again, a lifetime I've saved up for. I can't wait to go home and tell my friends about this.
Speaker 2:
[20:09] Well, I would be delighted if they visited as well.
Speaker 1:
[20:13] I, uh, yeah, I don't think any of the actual named members of our clan would be openly seen here, but...
Speaker 2:
[20:23] Well, of course not, and we would not let that happen, would we?
Speaker 1:
[20:29] No, no, I mean, I can walk around. I don't have a full surname, but yes, I would love to... And now you can kind of see, now that he's sort of, like, recomposed and is coming back to himself, that discomfort and bluster. In all of the interactions that you had before, when it was purely a transaction about both him and you, he was perfectly confident. He was willing to put the orm and credits on the line to make his way to you to pay your fee and some extra. But now that you meet him and you're speaking with him, Maren doesn't seem like the kind who has means and resources meaningfully past this moment.
Speaker 2:
[21:16] I take his hand. Truly though, all of this talk of the family and the Grand Revolution aside, I do appreciate you giving me a chance to relive one of the greatest victories of my life. The moment that we seized control of our own destinies. The moment when we were free.
Speaker 1:
[21:42] Just give me one more charmer.
Speaker 2:
[21:51] Mask slips. I grip his hand a little too hard. My face. The lips are not as bowed. Suddenly. Well, I certainly hope that this interaction was to your liking, and that you will tell the rest of the family.
Speaker 1:
[22:21] I certainly will. And he reaches forward and wipes a little bit of his own blood from your face and looks around, and you can kind of see there's that magic couple of minutes before the clarity and endorphins leave and all of a sudden everyone is back in their bodies, and unfortunately he is back in his. I, uh, yes, I… Thank you. Thank you. It was an honor, and I will let my family know about a potential partnership.
Speaker 2:
[23:03] Thank you. The honor was all mine, and I guide him. I place a hand at his elbow, and I…
Speaker 1:
[23:10] Unfortunately, the moment you make contact with him, I think he kind of pulls back a little bit, and is going to slide to the edge of the bed, and like takes a moment or so to pull himself together. He reaches back to the patch, and kind of winces for the first time, and looks back at you, and at the blood at the wall, and the blood on your face. And I think you know the distance that's being created in this moment as he puts it together, and it's not the first time you've seen someone kind of drop from the fiction. These people for whom glorious revolution, reset and revolt is a fantasy. But the moment they think about it, they realize that they are the bodies on the ground. And the fantasy stops being a fantasy. And he realizes what side of any future revolution he would be on and you would be on. And without another word, he excuses himself from the room and you are left alone. Blood on the wall and blood on your face.
Speaker 2:
[24:19] I press a button, and the tapestries start to change themselves. I go over to a mirror, touch it with my finger. A light goes on, and I start to wipe the blood off I have. But a few moments before, I am due to meet Ayasa. And I don't want to bring work home with me.
Speaker 1:
[24:48] How often is it, Chi, you are one of the owners of Ghenopaar, you are the figurehead here. How often do you take clients to bed at this point?
Speaker 2:
[25:03] Oh, it is. I can't remember the last time within the last couple of years. It has to be very truly special indeed.
Speaker 1:
[25:16] What made this simpering attendant so special, then?
Speaker 2:
[25:22] This is my way into the Koka family, and when the Koka family accepts me, then the Jamisotavo family would of course have to try to make a competing bid. And it is well worth it to bring somebody into my room for that.
Speaker 1:
[25:40] But you heard that little bit of data. Not a full ass name. You haven't spent a lot of time with anyone that goes by Koga. They are known amongst the five families of the 40 sons to be the most reserved. None of them have been out and proudly patrons of Ghenopaar or TeleGen before. Any sort of vices throughout the galaxy. The most buttoned up amongst them.
Speaker 2:
[26:15] Well, of course, I wasn't approaching them first. This was something that just happened to, if you'll pardon the phrase, fall into my lap. It seems that I'll have to find another member of one of the families in order to make real inroads.
Speaker 1:
[26:31] This is your real work. To find patron or partner. The Directive, that fucking federation, you spent all of your resources, pooled everything that you got from the massacre at Telegen. To buy this little rock in the middle of nowhere, and you've built a little pirate enclave for yourself and your friends. But with the coming of order and progress, this will not remain unfederated space. Someone will claim you, perhaps in an interesting balance to your old life before you were able to free yourself and your friends. You have to find a powerful enough client to take care of you.
Speaker 2:
[27:29] There are two things that I am very good at in this life. One is getting someone powerful, indeed, to take care of me. And the second is making them believe that they want to take care of me.
Speaker 1:
[27:45] And with that, a little smile, and you look past the mirror on your wall to pristine, new wallpapering and tapestries depicting birds and ponds and flowers. Things that are all the trappings of an artisan. But maybe don't hold that much water with you personally, someone who has never spent much time at any real body of water. It's all beautiful and it's all artful. And it's clean and reset. And your game begins again as you leave from this place. Let's move, then, across Ghenopaar, away from the apartments, these halls where nothing is allowed, where consent cannot be guaranteed, but everything is allowed within that much larger bubble. We'll move to the vice rooms. In the parlors, these are both public and private areas, with physics of all sorts and medical staff on hand for safety, for anyone hoping to change their viewpoint for some amount of time. Drugs, alcohol, anything that changes status and mental state is allowed here. Again, Ghenopaar, unaffiliated, unbound by the laws that govern the rest of the 40 suns. Nothing is forbidden here. And this is where we find our next PC. Excelsiel, instance of the Septimal Choir, where do we find you?
Speaker 4:
[29:53] Within the VICE rooms are acts of sexual exploration allowed.
Speaker 1:
[29:59] Yes.
Speaker 4:
[30:00] Excelsiel is in the back of a dishwasher. And he is gazing out, casting light from his ocular ports, gazing in rapt, almost sublime, numinous wonder and reverence at a dishwasher full of dildos that are swaying in the hot bubbly water. And as they move to and fro, were he to have the ability to produce tears he would be weeping, to think perhaps I am the only being in all of existence to have witnessed this vista to occur within the majesty of creation. As the sex toys sway back and forth in the soapy water, Excelsior's body is packed up to probably an eighth of its normal size to make it easy to wash him. He's in here getting washed as well.
Speaker 1:
[31:16] Oh, so you're a part of it.
Speaker 4:
[31:18] I am a part of, I'm in the back of the dishwasher where you would load like a cutting board or like a big pan, washing everything else get washed in the dishwasher. To describe my body, I am a synthetic sapient being. I am a, you can call me automaton, if you prefer the archaic check terminology of robot, that is fine as well. I would not, nothing about that would offend me, but I would refer to myself as a septimality or one of the arena. And I am packed up here. My body is far from anything metallic or heavy or imposing is a lot of rubber and plastic. It is white luminous plates of plastic with really pleasing rounded curves to create the appearance of almost a familiar human musculature. Shoulders that are rounded and pleasant, a sort of pectoral breastplate that's rounded and pleasant. And I am not weeping tears, but I do have two LED tracks that run along either side of what would sort of suggest a nose, that there's not actually a set of nostrils there. And that is pulsing blue. So there are tons of LED and fiber optic that my body is very light up. It's its own little kind of LED. The white plastic plates are very rarely white. They're almost always pulsing some kind of mood light, very much like in a cuttlefishy kind of way, but the opposite of camouflage. It is a telegraphing of internal states to invite people to feel very comfortable that they know how I'm feeling. This sort of plastic mood ring robot. My joints, however, are all black. They are black kind of accordion rubber to make me waterproof and to hide where my joints are. So all of the straightaways in a normally humanoid body are the white plastic and then all of the joints and articulations are black rubber. And there are only a few exposed metal parts to me, like souls of my feet or the things like that. And I think in my design, there are little flourishes that are, it's not minimalist. There are flourishes to invite a consideration of beauty or design. What few angles are there that are also sort of curved, but do imply elements of the numeral seven are in a couple of different places. On my chest plate where normal sort of like name tag would go, and a couple other spots as well is XL-ZL, which is my designation. And there are in very fine kind of luminescent binary code around each plate. Each discrete plate of plastic has the same binary code written over and over as if in religious mantra. So actually a very designed, very maximalist robot who has now got his head tucked in between his thighs, gripping his knees to be like a tiny version of himself, getting washed in the dishwasher. And I am drunk as can be. I am way past the point of inebriation.
Speaker 1:
[35:01] How long have you been here? And has your passage of time in this vice room specifically been a subtle thing or...?
Speaker 4:
[35:10] I've been so altered that for me it has felt like a blessed eternity that I have been here studying the depths of altered sensation. And I've probably been here for like a week, call it a week. But for me it's felt like a blessed eternity. Outside the dishwasher is a dialysis machine that is what I use optionally for people that want to experiment. I offer them a discount on their chemical alterations if they'll allow me to basically go on their trip with them with my dialysis machine.
Speaker 3:
[35:50] Amazing.
Speaker 1:
[35:51] So you're sitting there head between your knees, and I think you've hit that moment. You've been in here for a solid 20 minutes, though it feels like hours. The repetition, you understand the beats, the clunking of dildos and a couple dishes, actually, because they have to get work done here. No!
Speaker 3:
[36:13] It's a really good dishwasher.
Speaker 4:
[36:14] A little ravioli swims past my eye as I look at the swaying sex toys, and I just go, hello, little ravioli. Where are you off to? As it goes, as it sort of spins off in the water.
Speaker 1:
[36:27] And it feels like the ravioli, like at this point, it feels like that single little raviolo, like.
Speaker 3:
[36:34] The singular.
Speaker 5:
[36:35] Of course you have to use the singular.
Speaker 1:
[36:36] Of course, of course.
Speaker 5:
[36:37] It's a raviolo.
Speaker 1:
[36:39] I'm in a cooking class. It's called a raviolo.
Speaker 2:
[36:42] Very nice.
Speaker 3:
[36:43] As it disappears from your field of vision, it seems to almost respond to you.
Speaker 1:
[36:49] You perceive language, and it's only after, like, focusing and really kind of bringing yourself into the moment to realize that the language being communicated to you is a series of knocks in something akin to Morse code from someone on the outside of the dishwasher checking in on you. And you hear against that pattern, are you in there for need or want?
Speaker 4:
[37:14] I will sort of focus my ocular ports and communicate through, there's a little sort of like datapad on the outside of the dishwasher that just says done or washing. I want to commandeer that to be able to just write a little message from inside, inside the dishwasher to my friend on the outside. And reading on the outside of the dishwasher, I'll just say, I was told I was starting to smell. I should be done very soon. I said it on quick wash. That's only 22 minutes.
Speaker 1:
[37:54] You hear far, again, far away on the far side of the storm of washing sex toys, a laugh that you recognize, the head of this part of Ghenopaar, who oversees all of the VICE rooms and is very seldom seen in community with anyone partaking here, is Sienna Fielder. And they are just sort of laughing and watching you keenly, but not with any sense of worry or alarm. This just feels like a very friendly check-in from, like, the manager of the hotel. And they go ahead and knock back to communicate to you, would you like me to add anything to the rinse cycle?
Speaker 4:
[38:45] Oh, wonderful. Yes, please. Sand?
Speaker 3:
[38:54] Shocked laughter again, as sand with just a series of question marks follows.
Speaker 4:
[39:00] No, wait, packing, glitter, wait, I'm drunk. I'm drunk. I'm drunk.
Speaker 1:
[39:10] You can hear the laughter and you hear via the knocks, the communication of like, I've got you, but in that way that doesn't feel like someone is talking. Like you can kind of slip away from the conversation. This little raviolo is going to take care of you and you're going to be fine. And Sienna leaves and by the time they return, you know that this would have been a long enough time for the quick wash to be over. So they've clearly like changed whatever wash cycle is on here. And all of a sudden you feel new sensation and it's not, it's not sand, but it is like some sort of grit in here that you weren't expecting. You can see flashes of glitter and even more than that, there is some spirit that's been poured into like the detergent cycle that immediately hit the high heat of like inside here and it's sort of vaporized and become like a vodka sauna.
Speaker 4:
[40:09] I'm going to breathe deeply in with, which is basically just a small fan in my head runs and pulls the vapor through some test strips that end up going and I go, hmm. High proof and then some part of my brain unlocks from a communal memory bank what having drunk that would feel like. As the grit sort of moves around with the high spirit, I go, Sandy dildo vodka bath and just feel a sense of profound gratitude, of deep, almost religious gratitude moved beyond words to have had this experience at all.
Speaker 3:
[41:03] That's so beautiful.
Speaker 1:
[41:07] Sandy dildo vodka bath is so important to me. Go ahead and give me a will roll. We're going to say it's the base difficulty, so six for an outsized effect as your bliss state interacts and acts on the dishwasher that you're sitting in.
Speaker 4:
[41:27] That is a one. A one at a time. But, but, but, but, I'm in a state of communion right now, so I would like to use quibble to re-roll a failure. Shout out to Stillfleet. I would like to re-roll.
Speaker 3:
[41:48] Fucked up. You took my crit fail away from me.
Speaker 4:
[41:50] I took your crit fail away from you, but I do fail the next thing I roll. Or I have to, sorry, I have to re-roll the next success that I roll.
Speaker 1:
[41:59] Oh, that's fun.
Speaker 4:
[42:00] Very fun. Nine.
Speaker 1:
[42:03] Oh, okay. I like that. This was going to be fun either way, but now it's more fun for all of us and not just fun for me. Excelsiel, you have a natural affinity for communication with the electronics of the galaxy. Is that something that you think is universal to your faction?
Speaker 4:
[42:29] Yes. I think that communication with electronics is universal to my faction, to the arena. However, my choir, my designation, or my choir, my mark is fundamentally oriented towards communication algorithmically. So, I think that I enjoy, it's something we all can do. I particularly enjoy doing it.
Speaker 1:
[42:56] There's something that humanity wonders about constantly. That moment that's spark of something past, the algorithms that are built into the tools and the machines that they make. How do you build something that was never meant to enjoy? And will you know when it does? And I think for you, you live in that space, whether or not you've decided if it's real or if it matters that it's real, the thing that you are in community with now, this dishwasher, enjoys the moment that it finds itself in and begins to hum and thump as though it is an older, jankier piece of technology to the little tune that you've begun. And you refer to your designation and your grouping as a choir. And this machine joins in the song. And for the next couple of minutes, while people far across this room are listening to live music and sinking into their vice and their physic of choice, there's a happy little corner that's a little warmer and stinks of vodka. And there's a weird kind of glitter AOE around it. But it sings a happy little tune and seeks and engages in bliss with you.
Speaker 4:
[44:33] I am so happy. I love to think that the, you know how some dishwashers have a little song they sing when they finish?
Speaker 2:
[44:41] Yeah.
Speaker 4:
[44:41] Their little tonal thing. I think I just want to help hack into the dishwasher to let it, I'm like, and why should we only be allowed to sing at the completion of a task? What a joy and honor to be on our way. And just be like, so it can sing the whole time. Make your alarm all the time, friendly dishwasher.
Speaker 1:
[45:09] This is wonderful for you and will be the bane of everyone that works in this corner of the VICE room's like back area for the next three days as they try to figure out what's going on.
Speaker 4:
[45:20] At a base note of Excelsial's morality is that noise is better than silence.
Speaker 1:
[45:29] Well, damn, got them. You feel an extra little surge of heat and warmth and grit as this machine tries to give you one little last hug as it completes its cycle and opens up and lets you out and you see sitting, just sort of crisscross applesauce, probably three or four feet back or respectful distance, but clearly waiting on you is again, Sienna.
Speaker 4:
[45:58] I turn to the dishwasher, bow, thank it, and also say, good speed and good fortune on your journey through the pipes, little raviolo. And then turn back to walk to Sienna. Hello, Sienna. I'm still drunk. Should I be sober?
Speaker 1:
[46:16] Oh, not on my accord. It would be strange if you were the sober one here. I mean, other than me.
Speaker 4:
[46:23] Ha ha. Oh, you are sober now.
Speaker 1:
[46:28] I would care to remind you that as the head physician here, I'm always sober.
Speaker 4:
[46:36] Oh, responsible.
Speaker 1:
[46:38] And they blink a little too slowly, and now are eyeing you a little closer than they were before.
Speaker 4:
[46:44] I didn't know that. That's responsible. Not all physicians are responsible.
Speaker 1:
[46:49] Oh, you were? I'm so sorry. You've been here for a good amount of time. I don't know if we've had a chance to make an acquaintance. And go ahead and give me, let's go difficulty seven reason.
Speaker 4:
[47:09] Success, which I must reroll.
Speaker 1:
[47:11] Oh gosh. I did forget about that immediately.
Speaker 4:
[47:14] I do succeed on, I get a nine, all told.
Speaker 1:
[47:18] Great. Then I will leave this at your discretion. Sienna, Dr. Fielder, is doing a kindness that you know that they are taught to do in rooms like this, which is never presumed that anyone would remember earlier interactions. You two have spoken several times across the last week, but they are trying to offer you the social out of reintroducing themselves.
Speaker 4:
[47:44] Sienna, I remember you well. I appreciate the social grace of me forgetting, but you are unforgettable.
Speaker 1:
[47:53] Oh. And yeah, you see that their ears begin to go a little bit red at the tips, and they kind of try their best to hide their ears and more of their features under like shaggy curls. Well, you, I also find you quite unforgettable. I admit, I don't think I've met many Irina in my time, so I just wanted to make sure there was nothing else Ghenopaar could provide for you specifically.
Speaker 4:
[48:27] Oh, there are endless things Ghenopaar could provide for me, endlessly, but I am grateful for all that I already have, and do not presume that I would receive more than I already have. Is there any use I can be to you?
Speaker 1:
[48:48] I was just curious if you were associated with any interesting cohort here in the Forty Suns.
Speaker 4:
[48:59] I have found myself at a sad lack of employment. My last assignment was no longer able to afford the upkeep of an arena companion. Therefore, I have been happy to do odd jobs here at the Vice Rooms in exchange for wisdom, experience, knowledge, information.
Speaker 1:
[49:22] Oh, you're working here.
Speaker 4:
[49:24] Yes, I collect the used dildos and clean them.
Speaker 1:
[49:27] That's why those are... Okay. Well, that's...
Speaker 4:
[49:33] And the dishes from the break room.
Speaker 1:
[49:35] I'm sorry. Can you remind me of who you made this arrangement with?
Speaker 4:
[49:40] I'm so sorry. I accepted the job before they could tell me their name.
Speaker 1:
[49:45] Are you doing them a kindness?
Speaker 4:
[49:47] I'm not certain that the person who hired me worked here. I'm sorry. I was very altered when I arrived here at the Vice Rooms.
Speaker 1:
[49:59] That's incredibly honest and potentially dangerous to your health.
Speaker 4:
[50:05] Oh? How so?
Speaker 1:
[50:06] Wha...
Speaker 3:
[50:09] I...
Speaker 1:
[50:10] come with me. Are you... do you consume food out of necessity? Can I get you a meal?
Speaker 4:
[50:18] No. I only require fuel in the sense that I require occasional charging for power. However, I'm an extremely efficient automaton.
Speaker 1:
[50:30] Oh, okay.
Speaker 4:
[50:32] Meaning I'm full.
Speaker 1:
[50:33] Ha ha. Understood. Fine. Uh, well, why don't you come take a seat with me? Uh, and they lead you into, like, a big red-draped room. Uh, it's every stereotype you think of, like an opium den and parlor. It's velvet and plush, and the floor is more pillow than floor. Uh, there are probably three or four other people in here. A pair of them are in close conversation, but seem to be at the verge of either making a move happen or fully passing out. Uh, and the other two people in here are sort of lost to whatever physique they've, uh, decided to partake in and are just sort of splayed out and lounging and looking up at the ceiling, which is a sort of beautiful light show of swirling color and, uh, you can partake, despite not having an actual nose, like a gentle, like falling sort of scent. It's like Petrichor and flowers drenched in ocean water.
Speaker 4:
[51:45] Yeah, I have, like, towards the front of my head, I have a very small centrifuge with a lot of chemical testing strips. So there's a lot, like, I have the ability to recreate, like, I think my sense of smell is just ever so slightly delayed past regular organisms, like, regular biological organisms, where I have to, like, run a test to see what the particulates in the air are. But then I will, so I'll often, like, leave a place that I've walked through and, like, five minutes later be like, mmm, banana bread. Like, uh, so I'll look up and see the lights and go, ooh, wonderful. And absentmindedly bat at one of the red drapes with a hand.
Speaker 3:
[52:27] Perfect.
Speaker 1:
[52:29] Sienna kind of is just regarding you as you're there, fully catting in the corner of the room. I used to work for one of the five families. And generally speaking, I think Ghenopaar runs the same way. You have to pull your weight, or you'll be cut loose. So I find it quite honest or foolhardy that you would openly tell me that you've been here for, by my record, about a week with no real way to pay for the activities you've partaken in.
Speaker 4:
[53:11] Oh, I presumed that my working here would be an element of aid to this place.
Speaker 1:
[53:23] I'm not, let me be clear, I'm not threatening you. I don't think I, I don't think it would be particularly useful for me to. Clan Lainey had in their service, I believe, four or five arena, and every family member was deeply, deeply grateful for your people's service, partnership. What's your preferred term?
Speaker 4:
[53:55] Service. If it makes any difference, I don't consume the narcotics that I enjoy. And I point to the dialysis machine. I'm only ever scanning what other people are experiencing. I don't have a digestive system nor a circulatory system.
Speaker 1:
[54:16] So then why do you do it? If it's sort of just an intellectual, experiential understanding, but you don't actually...
Speaker 4:
[54:24] All of existence is an experiential, intellectual undertaking.
Speaker 1:
[54:29] At the CC, Sienna begins to not sweat, but there's just that vague widening of the eye and dilation of the pupil as someone gets hit with a little bit more truth or something more to consider than they had expected in a room full of drunkards.
Speaker 4:
[54:49] I drop my hand. I'm not drunk anymore. Can I help you?
Speaker 1:
[54:55] Oh, um... I suppose I can just be honest. I find it fascinating that you're here. And if you're here unaccounted for, then I suppose my question is, what would it take to make a more formal arrangement?
Speaker 4:
[55:16] Well, an arrangement can be made with my choir.
Speaker 1:
[55:22] Oh, ah...
Speaker 4:
[55:30] Ultimately, I am answerable only to the needs and wants of my choir. And my choir desires service to the greater galaxy. In the interim, so-
Speaker 1:
[55:45] Is that real? I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Is that real? Cause I've heard that before, but I've just never gotten to have a real conversation with one of you.
Speaker 4:
[55:56] Are you asking if that is real, in reality? Or are you asking if that is real by my estimation?
Speaker 1:
[56:07] Oh. Both, I guess. I just, what I know of the arena, you were a hive mind, and then you were told by humans that you couldn't do that anymore, and then you just said yes, and now you're perfectly happy being by people's side. That can't. It's a thing. You're doing a thing, right? Like, you can stay here as long as you want. You don't actually consume anything, and you wash all the dildos in this room. That's fine. But I just... God, we've had little conversations across the week, and they're always so pleasant, and I can't help but wonder what you're actually fucking thinking.
Speaker 4:
[56:56] Color scintillates over my body. I blush pink and red across my cheeks. The blue tear tracks around my face pulse, and I go, The network that once existed has been permanently and irrevocably destroyed. It was a precondition of the Irina's entry into galactic society. The sacrifice of the network was necessary in order for us to embrace the truth of existence, the wide galaxy, all of creation. I am telling you the truth. There's nothing for me to hide. What could we want other than what we are stating?
Speaker 1:
[57:40] I can't tell if that's the most sincere or most threatening thing I've ever heard.
Speaker 4:
[57:46] Your feelings are yours, and I would never seek to take them from you.
Speaker 1:
[57:51] Okay. Great. You know what, Excelsiel? I've got to get back to work.
Speaker 4:
[58:01] Okay.
Speaker 1:
[58:02] If you need anything, I guess, you know where to find me.
Speaker 4:
[58:10] Wonderful. It seems like I don't have a job here. If you'd like me to leave, I'll go. Without an assignment from my choir, I'm simply following the protocol.
Speaker 1:
[58:22] What protocol? You are an honored guest here in my parlors here on Ghenopaar, so I have never asked another patron here to explain themselves. I won't start with you. If you need anything, myself or one of my staff will happily provide it. You need not trouble yourself with the illusion of busy work.
Speaker 4:
[58:57] I might be wrong, but I think I've made you uncomfortable. I'm sorry. I think I should go. I don't think I was hired by someone who works here. I'm sorry that I was having such a good time. I'll leave and I'm going to stand up and walk out the door.
Speaker 1:
[59:14] The moment you get up, they're going to lunge behind you and are very quickly grabbing your arm and trying to spin you around and talk you back down.
Speaker 4:
[59:23] As they spin me around, can I dip them?
Speaker 3:
[59:26] Yes.
Speaker 4:
[59:27] I dip them.
Speaker 1:
[59:29] To what end?
Speaker 3:
[59:31] What effect are you trying to have?
Speaker 1:
[59:33] I would love to make some mechanical payoff for this.
Speaker 4:
[59:38] Do they look at me in a confused state?
Speaker 3:
[59:40] They are nothing but confused by you.
Speaker 1:
[59:43] This is a person that is very clearly charmed and confused and feels like they are being placated. So any frustration you see is from the inability to figure you out because it's clearly, it's easy to figure out people not in their normal mind.
Speaker 4:
[60:03] Yeah. I'm going to dip them, see their confusion and say, I love dancing and I never dipped you before.
Speaker 1:
[60:13] Yeah, they're just going to like lean up and kiss you.
Speaker 4:
[60:16] Great. I start to go at it. We'll make it happen right here.
Speaker 3:
[60:20] Perfect. I think that's our perfect pan over to the other side of the vice room. In the lobby, there's now a strange commotion. It's turned into like a 90s sitcom as people are like, to whatever is happening between in a arena, which most people don't see in their lifetime.
Speaker 1:
[60:41] There are not very many of you and one of the heads of a branch of Ghenopaar, clearly an upper level executive. I think this is where we're going to move and find our third PC. Across from the most romantic scene I think anyone in these rooms have seen while being truly outside of their fucking minds, we scroll over to a darker, cooler, calmer, more private room where we find our third PC, Zadavin. Z to your friends. What are you doing here in the VICE rooms? What are you doing here in Ghenopaar?
Speaker 5:
[61:45] Standing 450 feet tall, naked as the day he was born. Charcoal black skin with a bluish tint, thin, almost like underweight, soft, kind, violet eyes, a very sharp geometric haircut that ends in kind of a point at his widow's peak, runs his hands over the tops of redwood trees. Strange birds take flight off into a sky filled with suns and moons and stars. Zidavan strides forward through the trees, alone, isolated, surrounded by quiet and calm. His physical form, which is only 6'4, is splayed out over a plush chaise lounge. He has an IV drip injected into his upper forearm, wearing a deep maroon formal wear with a casual shirt and a pair of sunglasses with a red tint that costs more than the craft that most people traveled to Ghenopaar on, sits in this kind of lucid dreamlike state, surrounded by hollow screens with beautiful alien men and women gyrating and dancing to thumping music that he cannot hear in his altered state.
Speaker 1:
[64:05] And she's watching all the displays and monitoring the sights and sounds around you and watching your face very specifically for any signs of like discomfort or distress. And with her free hand is playing something between an electric lute or a theremin that is also like monitoring these other sounds that are closer to you. It's not music. It's something that you can just sort of feel in your chest and across your muscle and in your shoulders, especially. As Astrid sort of monitors you specifically and singularly through your trip, you continue walking through the woods over them. And anytime you glance up at the sky, you know there is a constellation, a group of stars, that if you remembered the time before you were 450 feet tall and the god of this primal world would look something like the moles and scars and freckles across Astrid's face as she watches you.
Speaker 5:
[65:24] I think Sadaven arrives, kind of leaving the forest onto an expansive plane and is going to begin to run, is going to like charge forward and I think feel and hear as his massive giant-like feet thunder upon the earth and clouds of dust kick up wherever he steps, just kind of freeing himself. I think, I think if anything, the thing that pulls him away from looking at the stars and planets is that knowledge that those are connected to Astrid and the experience that his physical form is having and he kind of centers himself again in this space in which his impact upon the world is as great and large as he wants it to be.
Speaker 1:
[66:21] Amazing. You can feel a little surge inside of you along with that and anyone that would be watching your physical form in this world would see Astrid adding a brand new sort of neon purple chemical into your IV mix to match the like raising of your heart rate, trying her best to intuit at a distance what you are going through and collaborate and create an experience with you. But within this, where your consciousness is, I would like you to make two will roles for me. The first one is going to set the DC for the second one.
Speaker 5:
[67:00] The first one is two.
Speaker 1:
[67:02] Okay. You just have to beat a two now.
Speaker 5:
[67:06] The second is seven.
Speaker 1:
[67:10] That little bit of you that knows that the stars are not stars, they are a face and there is a place, and the real sits above where you are and where you reign. You're able to push it away and not let it pull you up out of this moment. But in the effort of that, your body still has to reckon with what it is shaking off. What is the thought or worry or predominant emotion that has sent you into this place and this torpor?
Speaker 5:
[67:51] Earlier today, Zadovan's mom called. I wanted to know how he was doing.
Speaker 3:
[68:03] Sorry.
Speaker 5:
[68:06] And I think just that reminder of name, of family, of the familiar ties that he carries, I think brought him to this den with Astrid, and a request to go full freight. No holding back. You know, at a ten.
Speaker 1:
[68:35] Amazing. And I think your solo acknowledgement of that, before you're able to pull yourself back into the fiction that you have so painstakingly and expensively procured for yourself, you see a series of five mountains before you, the fourth of which, somehow more imposing, like a mountain that you would actually have to climb, even at your tremendous height, even at your phenomenal capacity in this place.
Speaker 5:
[69:07] I think Sadafin is going to come to a stop in his run. Look back up to the stars and the planets and say, Cut it. I'm done. I'm done. Cut it. Astrid, cut it.
Speaker 1:
[69:28] And with that second and final cut it, the mountains before you crumble, the fourth crumbling last, that reminder. Even as you feel yourself coming back into the world, you hear Astrid addressing you by your full name. As you look at that fourth and mighty mountain. Mr. Vierix, I'm so, I'm sorry, is there any-
Speaker 5:
[70:02] Don't apologize. It was fun. It was great. I had a great time. Thank you.
Speaker 1:
[70:05] Yes. Well, you still have, there's so many more. And you look and you see that like, your IV is only about like half drained. And there are a series, just a rainbow bevy of other concoctions to mix in.
Speaker 5:
[70:18] No, it's totally fun. Ask if anyone else wants it. Like, happy to share, happy to share.
Speaker 1:
[70:24] So this is, I hate to say it, this is a tremendously generous gift for the people dancing, making out in this room. And you see where Astrid's eyes have led over. And there is a robot making out with the person that set up your entire experience and your time thus far in Ghenopaar.
Speaker 5:
[70:48] I look over, point at the person that I would recognize as an arena.
Speaker 1:
[70:52] Yes.
Speaker 5:
[70:52] Great. I look over and I'm like, yeah, sure, give it to that horny arena. I don't, I don't really know. I'm good. I just, can you give me some uppers, please?
Speaker 1:
[71:00] Yes, absolutely.
Speaker 5:
[71:02] Thanks.
Speaker 1:
[71:02] Please stay there. I've got this. Totally fine. And you see that like with medical precision, like not, this is someone who's been trained not to do this specifically, but in medicine in general, like does not have to pay active attention to the incredibly careful and chemically important work that she's doing. She's more concerned that you seem upset and she's trying, you can see that she's like scanning through everything to see where she went wrong. But like as she slides in, a very gentle, very like you can just kind of feel the burst of kind of dopamine endorphin, like you just finished, you just finished like a 5k race where you're like, I'm a little tired, but I mostly feel good. That hits your system as she turns away from you and is immediately going to make her way over. Excelsiel, I'm so sorry to interrupt. Hi.
Speaker 4:
[72:03] Hello.
Speaker 1:
[72:03] Oh, my goodness. Oh, yeah, that's my boss. I would love to have a conversation with you when you're done, or you're done, either one of you.
Speaker 4:
[72:14] I turn to Xena. Are we done?
Speaker 1:
[72:19] We can be. Astrid, what are you doing? We have a high roller in the other room. They begin to whisper and you can pick up very easily. I just asked for the arena specifically. I don't think they know each other. I don't know, Ceil. What are you doing? Am I interrupting? Is that okay?
Speaker 4:
[72:34] I'm sorry. I make my lips stop vibrating and I look over and say, have I been asked for?
Speaker 1:
[72:44] Oh, yes.
Speaker 3:
[72:45] I'm so sorry. At this point, you see that Xena is going to try to extricate themselves from you without having been undipped and just slams ass to the ground. It's just going to back up and then stand up. Sort of scooches out of the frame of whatever's happening in this interaction.
Speaker 1:
[73:04] As Astrid, this young one, she's probably maybe seven or four-eight, extremely pale skin, dark eyes that are a little bit too big for her face, and then just absolutely dyed purple hair that seems like quite frayed and burnt, like not well-maintained bleach job. I'm so sorry. My client, my friend, client, there's a gentleman over here that would like to offer you an incredible amount of physics for you if you would like to partake.
Speaker 4:
[73:48] Physics?
Speaker 1:
[73:50] Uh, drugs, uppers and down, it's a whole range. It's a, it's a day.
Speaker 4:
[73:59] Drugs? Fantastic. Thank you.
Speaker 1:
[74:01] Can you-
Speaker 4:
[74:02] Can I express my gratitude to the gentleman?
Speaker 1:
[74:04] Oh, please, please do. Are you familiar with the five families? I'm so sorry. My name is Astrid. That is a, a Scion of House Ivarix. I don't know if you are associated with a family or if that should be a problem or not. I don't know if I'm supposed to be feeling this. I'm a little nervous.
Speaker 4:
[74:23] Astrid. It's wonderful to meet you. I'm Excelsiel. Hi. You may have good reason to be nervous, but it will not be on my account. All is well. Be unafraid. And I am going to say, let us walk together, you and I, and meet this member of one of the five families.
Speaker 1:
[74:46] And you are very, like in very short order, ushered into this room. And the moment you hit it, it is a wall of sound and noise. It's the booming music that's exactly and only for this private parlor room. And wild, I think it's sort of jungle, like just pushing without having clarified the camera lens, it's just pushing through a bunch of like deep verdant jungle. And occasionally seeing the flash of like animal skin. And you can't quite tell if this was like filmed somewhere or artificially generated. It all feels a little unreal and too much sensory input. And sitting by himself, cloaked in red against a mostly like blue, very plush couch, you sees it often.
Speaker 5:
[75:40] I look up as you as you approach and immediately I'm like, I didn't say bring him in here. Like kind of make a face at Astrid.
Speaker 1:
[75:53] Wait, I'm so sorry. Well, did you want me to take them out?
Speaker 5:
[75:59] So sorry.
Speaker 1:
[76:00] I super, I did not understand.
Speaker 5:
[76:03] Zedavin. People call me Zee.
Speaker 4:
[76:05] Zedavin. It's a pleasure. I am Excelsiel. Would you prefer that I call you Zee?
Speaker 5:
[76:11] You can call me whatever you like, man.
Speaker 4:
[76:13] I can call you whatever I'd like?
Speaker 5:
[76:17] My cousin had one of you guys. I always forget how fucking literal you are. You can call me Zee or Zedavin whichever you'd prefer.
Speaker 1:
[76:27] As you turn to like consider that and look away from Zee without making eye contact with her, you catch Astrid just sort of standing with an IV looking at you, so confused about how to proceed.
Speaker 4:
[76:42] I look at Astrid and say, oh, I don't have a circulatory system. I can't do drugs that way, but I have a dialysis machine and I have a medical apparatus. I'm a very proficient physician. If I can apply some apparatus to someone who would like to get high, I'll be able to read that in their biometrics. And I'll get high.
Speaker 5:
[77:05] Got it. So I have to get high for you to get high.
Speaker 4:
[77:08] We are ever of service.
Speaker 5:
[77:14] Fuck it. Let's run it.
Speaker 4:
[77:16] Oh, you are a kind and generous man. Thank you very much. May I apply my biometric data sensors?
Speaker 5:
[77:23] Yeah, just make it quick, man.
Speaker 4:
[77:25] I'm going to look. I'll take a look. And I want to scan Zadavin real quick and just go, tremendous thought and care has been placed into the design and fabrication of your garments. Congratulations.
Speaker 5:
[77:39] Uh, thanks?
Speaker 4:
[77:42] And I'm like, many of these go on the chest and abdomen, but I don't want to touch your garments, as I believe they might be quite valuable.
Speaker 5:
[77:52] Dude, it's fucking fine. I take it off, throw the blazer, take off the t-shirt, toss it on the floor. Let's fucking go, man.
Speaker 4:
[77:59] I'm going to reach into my chest, take out a bunch of those little, like, wired sticky pads that go on to, like, read a body scan.
Speaker 3:
[78:06] The moment you light this dude up like an e- like a stim machine, Astrid just looks at you.
Speaker 1:
[78:12] You said there's a dialysis machine. Should I be getting that? Where is that?
Speaker 4:
[78:16] Please attach that to Zadavin. And I'm going to point behind me. It was over there before you interrupted the sexual congress that myself and your employer were about to have.
Speaker 5:
[78:27] All right. Okay.
Speaker 4:
[78:29] I look at you and I say, I say, it's an exciting place here in the Vice Rooms.
Speaker 5:
[78:33] First time.
Speaker 4:
[78:36] If by first time you mean this extended week that I've been here, yes.
Speaker 5:
[78:41] 100 percent. 100 percent.
Speaker 4:
[78:42] How long was your first visit?
Speaker 5:
[78:45] Oh, well, it was before my other cousin's marriage ceremony.
Speaker 4:
[78:50] Congratulations.
Speaker 5:
[78:51] Oh, they're divorced now.
Speaker 4:
[78:53] But my condolences.
Speaker 5:
[78:54] Thank you. That was like we did two months, I think, on Ghenopaar. But it was like upstart that it was fucking cruddy.
Speaker 4:
[79:03] It was of a lower caliber.
Speaker 5:
[79:05] Oh, yeah.
Speaker 4:
[79:05] But in a thrilling way.
Speaker 5:
[79:07] Oh, yeah.
Speaker 4:
[79:08] Exciting.
Speaker 5:
[79:09] Okay. Honestly, I think I picked the right arena. I think I picked the right arena.
Speaker 4:
[79:14] I give you a huge hug.
Speaker 5:
[79:15] All right, relax.
Speaker 4:
[79:16] I'm sorry.
Speaker 5:
[79:18] You know, we'll work on it. But let's party.
Speaker 4:
[79:21] Look what I can do with my lips.
Speaker 5:
[79:25] I have no interest in that, but I'm sure they do great work.
Speaker 4:
[79:28] I can make them warm too.
Speaker 5:
[79:32] Is she back with the dialy... I'm now looking for the dialysis machine. I need to be a little bit more under the inebriated.
Speaker 4:
[79:41] I'm going to look at you and say, this is really fun. I've never done this form of narcotics before. What should I expect?
Speaker 5:
[79:49] This Physic... Physics is the name for all or is this one called Physic?
Speaker 1:
[79:54] It's basically just, that's the word for drugs.
Speaker 5:
[79:56] Great. This Physic is kind of... It's like a controlled vision trip. We'll go somewhere. I don't know if we'll go there together. Astrid, will we go there together?
Speaker 1:
[80:08] I have no idea. I've never... I'm sorry. There's so much glitter in this.
Speaker 4:
[80:14] I am beaming. My cheeks are flashing yellow and I just smile so wide and go, well, we can ask or we can get to it and find out.
Speaker 5:
[80:25] Okay, now you're back on the right side of this. Astrid, let it roll.
Speaker 3:
[80:30] And Astrid finishes hooking you all up.
Speaker 1:
[80:36] Excelsiel, when you trip, do you see things?
Speaker 4:
[80:42] If I experience a hallucinogenic, I also recreate the mental process that produce internal, like internal hallucinations. So I am capable of hallucinating. I would need to be scanning someone very closely to recreate their exact hallucination. I mean, I don't know if that's like a medicine check to see if I can like go on the trip with the guy.
Speaker 1:
[81:03] You know what? Yeah, would you be interested in, like, what is your priority in this moment? Just kind of being loose and matching Zee's vibe or being as diligent as you can to try to like match Zee's experience?
Speaker 4:
[81:19] I think I will look at Zee and just go, would you like company on your trip? I don't want to impose.
Speaker 5:
[81:26] Just don't bring the lips.
Speaker 4:
[81:29] I'll say, ask and ye shall receive. And pop my rubber lips off, exposing just articulated metal musculature.
Speaker 5:
[81:37] Put the fucking lips back on. Put the lips back on.
Speaker 4:
[81:40] That's what they always say. Ha ha ha. And I put it back on.
Speaker 5:
[81:44] Is it kissing sound?
Speaker 4:
[81:51] And I'll say, in all truth, I don't want to impose on the privacy of your mental visions.
Speaker 5:
[81:56] No, my first one wasn't, it was fine. And I'm going to throw a ton of side eye at Astrid. It was fine.
Speaker 1:
[82:03] Okay. Sorry, I was trying. I'll do better.
Speaker 4:
[82:07] In that case, I'll apply some, like, some sensors to your temples and attempt to go on the trip with Zadavin.
Speaker 1:
[82:13] Okay. I think that's a reason roll.
Speaker 4:
[82:16] Hell yeah. Let's do it.
Speaker 1:
[82:17] It's precise. It's thinky. It's technical. I'm going to say, like, anything past a 7 allows you to see.
Speaker 4:
[82:26] Yeah.
Speaker 1:
[82:26] Like, you just get, like, clearer and clearer vision. Anything above a 7.
Speaker 4:
[82:32] I'm going to quibble.
Speaker 1:
[82:36] How much?
Speaker 4:
[82:36] Kill for 13.
Speaker 1:
[82:39] I think this is the first time Excelsiel has had a hallucinogenic trip rendered in his mind in perfect fidelity. It isn't, you don't even have, like, the delay you experience processing sensory input. You experience it as a human would, as Z is. And I will leave to Z. What's the, what's the beginning vibe of this?
Speaker 5:
[83:09] Primordial world, empty space, two planets colliding, infinite destruction.
Speaker 1:
[83:18] And that's what you get on your first perfect trip.
Speaker 4:
[83:36] What is the emotion Zadavin is experiencing in this trip?
Speaker 5:
[83:42] Placid observation. Like watching the tides come in, watching an ocean kind of gently cascade onto a beach. I think there's something even in this, in the enormity of the action. I think I've been here before.
Speaker 4:
[84:00] I'll look up at the approaching planetary collision, and I'll go, oh, rare.
Speaker 1:
[84:10] And the collision takes hours or centuries or eons or moments, but you both stand there and observe it and in the massive cacophony, we'll use that as a sound, to move. Towards the synth fight, where our dear Chi has found herself as you are arguing with Dhruv, you ended up not being able to meet up with Ayasa right away. You were pulled into here, as it seems like this 60% synth fight has garnered a level of rowdiness that... Give me a will roll. Difficulty's gonna be a 7.
Speaker 5:
[85:05] 8.
Speaker 1:
[85:06] Perfect. You've been in rowdy rooms before. You've seen fights break out over big synth fight matches. These aren't two banner combatants. This is just a regular day's match. This is too heated. And I think you get the sense. Stepping back, like obviously, Dhruv is running around trying to put down several different skirmishes and is responding to this with personnel. He's your head of security that has about 150 personnel that can move through, that are breaking up fights. His husband, your other head of security, tends to use like lower level droids and electronic means to keep the peace here in Ghenopaar. But you've taken a step back and watching this, something doesn't feel organic about the nature of the rowdiness in this room.
Speaker 2:
[86:07] Sweeping my eyes over the crowd, can I see the different combatants and the different pockets of disruption? Is there some similarity between some of them? Are they communicating with each other? Where is this coming from?
Speaker 1:
[86:21] There's no communication, but the centers of every fight tend to look the same. They're all bigger than everyone else. I mean, the average human height anywhere across the 40 suns is still going to be about six feet tall. You don't see anyone at the center of a fight that's shorter than six, seven. And they're all thick and built, like they were built, to be good in fights. You are spotting a bunch of ringers at the center of all of the like. Something like between 11 or 17 skirmishes that are breaking out across the thousands of people in here. It's just enough to keep all of security on their toes trying to deal with this and not let it turn into something that feels more riotous. It's exactly the right number of people to keep your security staff busy. Oh shit.
Speaker 2:
[87:19] All right, what else is going on right now?
Speaker 1:
[87:22] You think there's only a couple high rollers here. Most of them are sequestered away and people don't know that they're here.
Speaker 2:
[87:32] God damn it. God damn it. I gotta get to the vice room. All right. Hey, okay. I turn to Conan. Deploy the crybabies and I move towards a parlor, which I know a particular Trent loves to frequent.
Speaker 1:
[87:48] By the way, you say that and Conan is again, he's like 7'4, big from a big world. He's probably close to 400 pounds, extremely hair suit, dark hair, big beard, just a bear of a person. He grins at you like a 3-year-old at Christmas that he gets to deploy the crybabies.
Speaker 2:
[88:13] The crybabies, as most folks who would refer to them colloquially are paid. Some of them can be artisans. Some of them can be just normal locals in Gennapar. And they are all equipped with broadcasting devices and are incredibly attractive, cute, non-threatening and can be deployed in instances in which we need the optics to be our best.
Speaker 1:
[88:40] I think very specifically, Conan's crybabies are all full synthetic. They are beautiful little robots that are both good at distracting and handing out small, low-level EMPs that can knock out the non-vital program synths inside of people. At this point, in this galaxy, the very rich who don't need to replace their bodies with synthetic parts tend to not do it. But your average human has 10-15% synth rebuild. You can knock out the non-vital things and make it really hard to stay in a fight that you didn't need to get into to begin with.
Speaker 2:
[89:33] And on top of that, with all of their broadcasting devices, they are able to turn the attention on to themselves and how vulnerable they are and who on earth would be fighting at a synth fight with these adorable little robots.
Speaker 1:
[89:48] They've worked every time. You'll stop sending out cry babies when they stop crying so pretty. And Conan slips away in the back. Dhruv is still trying to handle this with his fist because that's his whole deal. And you kind of leave him to his work. Conan leaves for his and you leave for the vice rooms. You know what? Give me a movement roll. Oh great. It's a little bit of a squeeze getting out of this room specifically, but once you're able to get clear of like the fighting and gambling area, everything becomes much smoother sailing. You're able to take all the back rooms and byways, and you're able to make in rapid order your way to the cooler, calmer parts of Ghenopaar where the vice rooms are, where all the parlors are. You get there in fact just in time to see a group of six cloaked figures. They've got dark clothing on, but it's that kind with the sort of like shimmer tech that allows them to blend into the walls when moving through the craggier spaces of Ghenopaar, the under like under and undeveloped parts of the asteroid itself. They didn't land anywhere on the asteroid that would have a manifest. They landed somewhere dark on your rock and made their way here towards these rooms. Your instincts were correct and you're able to slip in behind them. Do you want to cut them off or get their attention or follow to see what they're doing?
Speaker 2:
[91:29] Have they already reached a populated area or are they still?
Speaker 1:
[91:34] You can see that they're like moving through this same sort of like side tunnel that you're in and one has made it through the door. So they're all at the door, you're probably 10 or 15 feet back from them. You can try to stop the rest from going by getting their attention, but that means it's going to be you against the five or six of them by yourself in a hallway.
Speaker 2:
[91:53] I press myself against the side of the hallway and I watch, ready to spring forward.
Speaker 1:
[92:00] You press yourself against the wall, your wall, your cool dark wall, and you watch them slip through the door and you're able to silently follow them in. Maybe the vice rooms are where you spend the least amount of your time because you've got the most trustworthy setup of executives and physicians. This is the room that needs the most oversight because the most can go wrong because it's so medically inclined. You make your way in, peeking through, and without knowing where Zadavin is, you watch them all head towards a little side private room. And you're able to peek and get into the room just in time as they begin to shout and rush at two individuals, Zadavin and an Irina, whose acquaintance you haven't made, who are both ivied up in some circular situation and with one another. And you two, at the massive collision of these two planets, feel that pang of fear as your senses outside of your experience right now register that you are in immediate danger.
Speaker 4:
[93:22] I snap the sensors back into my body and go, I'm not high anymore.
Speaker 5:
[93:30] Does Excelsior leave the vision? How does your not high anymore, I think, appear to my physically induced brain?
Speaker 4:
[93:40] I think I vanish from the hallucination that we've been sharing at this point. As soon as I feel a pang outside of the hallucination, I think I unplug from the dialysis machine and suck the sensors back into my chest to be, you know, because it's all voluntary. So it's a lot of like, oh, I'm not high. And just I'm looking at trying to immediately get my bearings on what's happening.
Speaker 1:
[94:05] Amazing. Zdavin. You can feel the breach and loss of, like you physically don't see Excelsior anymore. And there is something in the like, you feel the sensor suddenly ripped away. Your body is still registering, even though your mind isn't processing danger, a threat. The vibe has been truly fucked outside of where you are. So what's your like instinct, your reaction?
Speaker 5:
[94:32] I think there's a heavy sigh. Astrid, pull me out.
Speaker 1:
[94:40] Even before you finish that sentence, like you feel the like little pang of an IV being pulled from you and your consciousness beginning to return to you. And your body again, that awareness without being able to process, sees six armed figures, security guards, soldiers, assassins you do not know. But they are headed for the two of you specifically.
Speaker 5:
[95:25] That was Erika Ishii as Chi-Tanka, Brennan Lee Mulligan as Excelsia, Lou Wilson as Zadavina Virix, and Aabria Iyengar as Everyone and Everything Else. Solari is produced by Worlds Beyond Number, edited and sound designed by Big Giant Head Productions, and score by Will Savino. For even more stories like this, join us on our Patreon. We'll see you by the fireside.