The Sprouting || Feed Drop

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Hey folks, apologies for our delay in getting you new episodes of someone just like you. We're currently going through some things in life that are demanding our attention, and unfortunately, we don't currently have any new episodes ready to go for you. But don't worry, this hiatus won't be too long. We're just taking a few months off so we can hit the ground running strong this fall. So no new episodes right now, but new episodes will begin again in August.

Until then, we'd like to continue to feature some of our favorite audio fiction shows and make sure you have plenty of cool stuff to listen to until we're back. Today on the feed, we're featuring The Sprouting. It's an actual play podcast from our friends at Blighthouse Studios.

The Sprouting is an Eldritch horror set in an apocalyptic future where plants have taken over, magical bargains twist the fabric of reality, and each survivor struggles to trust their own senses as they try to see their goals through to the end. The cast uses the rules of Call of Cthulhu to heighten the drama of our story and leave the fate of the story at the whims of the dice. Just search for The Sprouting anywhere you listen to podcasts. Enjoy!

The sprouting deals with Eldritch horrors, which is a horror beyond mortal understanding, horror not meant to be comprehended, and those that tried to be able to do it. Through the nines. Don't take this warning lightly. I can assure you that this tale will most likely involve body horror, manipulations of the mind, and moral subversions of fences. be the tale for you. You are encouraged to take breaks when you want them, and if you return, it should be entirely when you are ready to continue.

You have been warned that The Sprouting by Blighthouse Studio.

Lark's prequel. Not everyone in the cradle, where our story is set, lives within villages or towns. Some folks manage to survive in the wilds on their instincts alone, relying on observing their surroundings, not getting tied down. It's an ice cream. At least they're alive. But sometimes people are not so bad for survival. You find yourself in an abandoned two-story building.

Most of the walls have crumbled and fallen apart. Parts of the roof have collapsed in and collapsed through the floor below it. A lot of this building is covered in vine. And what looks like a vine that Fruit or berry. You can tell there's a fair amount of them here, and you've decided that this The night before this is the Mostly free from rain and is coming and you have some fairly good sight lines around you. You wake up. Outside. So Kessir. Who are we looking at?

We are looking at Lark. We're looking at a young, maybe twelve, thirteen years old looking child. They're um eastern looking, tanned skin. They have short, dark hair and wear very worn out clothing, and they are uh very short when they age. Um yeah, like you hear the sound of rustling outside and you hear what sounds like kind of like a a crackling sound.

You hear a voice. And the voice says You might want to send talk up here. There are so many greats, she's gonna love it, and hear a crackling, but you can't quite make out what it's saying. What do you want to do? You can't see the origin of the voice. Yeah. The sun is kind of beginning to come up, but this is where you are. You are very close to being found out. What do you want to do? They're trying to look at the same thing. Something like that?

Yeah. Yeah. Like you could like uh from within the building, um, you could definitely climb like and very quietly climb some of these um Uh vines and um like uh branches that have kind of like crept on the inside of this building that have taken part of the ceiling out. You could definitely climb some of that. And like peer over the edge where the roof is collapsed in to see like whomever or however many people are below you. You can definitely do that. Um

As you kind of very quietly and stealthily climb up there, I'm gonna make you roll a stealth roll. This person will no way ever be able to see you, um, or hear you. Um, you notice a As you look over the edge of the building, um you see this kind of probably mid to late teenage um uh young woman. Um she has like two Short curly hair and quite dark skin, like probably much darker than yours. And she seems to be.

Being out in the apocalypse. Um, she has like a side bag on and she seems to be holding this like. rectangular box that seems to be making that crackling sound that you're hearing every now and then. And you can see her lift it to her face and just like you hear a click um and the static cuts out and you hear her talking into it and you hear more crackling come from it as a response.

Um and you can see that she's reaching up and grabbing like some of the the berries, the the grapes as she's calling them, um and putting them in her sidebag. What do you want to do? I think I will watch them for a little while and make sure that like they're the the space is safe because uh they've been Basically hiding from threats in the area. Yeah.

So they're just making sure because they're there there's a center pole that is making a lot of noise. So they're like m making sure if they draw attention. Yeah, sh uh the the young young lady, uh young woman below, she's not really paying any attention to her surroundings, not in the way that you would. Um definitely not in the way that you have been trying to keep yourself hidden. She's just

Kind of walking around like there's no big problem. Um maybe she's just not used to being out here. Who knows? Um could I have you make and it's your choice, you can either make a spot hidden or a listen check. Uh let's do a spot in. But they are looking for threats. On edge. Seventy five? Oh god, hold on. I forgot how to... Okay, so...

You look down at this girl and um once again she lifts the box and she's like No, Leila, you have to come. Like you you have to send talk up here at least. Like there's so many berries here, there's so many Blackberries and blueberries and there's grapes and I know he you have to send them and you hear the box crackle once again. Um you can't really make out what it's saying. Okay, fine, I'll leave a mark. But I'm gonna... Yep, I'm gonna grab as many berries as possible. finally see it.

In the hedge behind where the girl is kind of reaching up and grabbing these berries and cracking. Maybe see it until it's a little bit more.

But you see this. Large plant. Yeah. Silvery brown colour to it. And you can see that. birch trees, you could just know them as some kind of tree that blends in very well. That it has been moving itself across the ground Track her. And it's moving very, very quietly. Is there anything you want to say? or use the opportunity to get away? But then they decide otherwise and they start re What the ground? ground level. Yeah, as you kind of like race your way down to the ground level.

You see um Yeah. Yeah. And just as it does that, you hear this ticking sounds, this kind of clicking and clacking, and it's coming from You're left. You didn't see it when you came back. Stairs to try and figure out what to do about the situation that you now find yourself in. And as you look, you see standing in the corner of the room this large pod with silvery and brown cracks to it, and you see its tendrils begin to slowly reach out.

stalk on the inside is beginning to rattle against the side of the pods, and you see one of the other tendrils from the creature that's potentially following the other young lady begin to change its orientation and head towards the sound of the other ticking creature. What do you wanna do? little Hans guys they have in their backpack. Yeah.

And They're basically they're trying to find like a um a the person to uh uh grab them and maybe drag them out of harm's way and like be ready to slash at uh any of the tendrils. Come into harm's way. And then try try to drag them like in the direction of uh an exit. Yeah, so like you as soon as you see this, like instantly just like oh crap

Crap mode. Um you manage to like bolt out before the tendril actually manages to lash itself around you very quickly and you hear like the ticking coming from the other pod that is Making its way behind the girl, and she can see she turns around and looks at you, she hears the sound, she hears you running, and she sees you coming, she looks at the creature.

And as you run for her she kinda grabs hold of your hand and basically starts running because she's that much taller than you and as you find up she's that much faster than you too. Oh no, she's just Yeah, you definitely feel like you're being dragged along as her hands are like locked inside yours and she kind of like looks panically around like she didn't even think, she just grabbed you and started moving. Um As you are both running, you notice that other pods, you

may have your own name for them but they are generally known in in this world as Hollow's Crest. You hear the sound of ticking coming from all around you now as you both begin to run as that first one begin to alert the world that yes there is something here and we can eat it. Um

Tendrils just kind of shoot out, and you see some of these pods begin to open, and you see that large stick on the inside beginning to hit the sides of the pods very, very loudly, and making it very obvious that there is something. There's probably about four or five of them. Could you please make a dodge roll for me? I can try. Amen. Hey, fifteen, hard success. Fantastic. Um one of these pods just kind of lunges itself forward.

the entire pod as if it's about to close around you and you see this and you manage to just roll and dodge out the way the girl's hand like slips from yours um as you begin to get out of the way this thing is it closes itself um around where you used to be. Let's see how well she does. As you kind of like drop out of a hand, as you kind of like pull forward, um, your momentum also.

partially pulls her forward and you see one of these giant pots that kind of launched itself from the other side of like the road that you're kind of running down um narrowly misgrabbing her in the entirety, but it does latch onto her foot as she kind of lands on the ground. She did a really good at dodging, but it was so close. So close to success, but it was a failure. As you see, it just kind of like clamps around her ankle. And you hear the sounds of teeth.

Yeah. And uh Don't fuck me, don't fuck- Oh my god! The dice was rolling on eight and then it flipped. It's a ten. Uh no, wait, uh sixteen. Success. Yay. Yay! Um Yeah, you managed to like pull out your I'm not gonna make you roll for it because you have enough damage. It was only kind of like partially clamped around her ankle. Um but yeah you managed to pull it at your hand size and you just slashed down. I managed to completely like cut the tip of this pod off that are closed around her ankle.

And yeah, you kind of like see this kind of like dark greenish fluid begin to flow out from it. Um and you see her kick it away and she kind of scrambles forward. Um and yeah, like again she kind of like gets herself up off the floor. Yeah, uh uh I'm gonna uh um like gr put a hand under her arm and try to pull her up at the same time. Yeah, absolutely. Like it's it's a mad dash scramble. Um, you can see that she like pulls out um from like that side bag as you're beginning to run.

Um, she pulls out like this uh like what looks like a small crossbow and she's very awkwardly trying to load it as she runs. Um But it's it's it's okay. It looks very crude, like very like poorly made. Um but the bolt looks like it could do some real damage. There's like a a hefty weight on the end of it you can see very easily. Um and you keep running down this road. Um You come to a fork in the road.

Do you have any idea on which way you'd want to go, or are you following your uh rescued friend? They're faster than me and probably dragging me most of the way a uh along. I'm just gonna let her.'Cause I I have no idea where to go either. I just wanna get away.

Um, she seems to be knowing where she's going and she kind of like yeah, as she's kind of like finally has the crossbow loaded, she kind of like reaches back and just holds on a few sects so that you can catch up, grabs hold of you and manages to continue propelling you forward.

Um, you see that as you're running um towards this fork she definitely veers you off to the left, which you aren't exactly sure which direction it is, but she seems to know where she's going. Um and as you go that way, you hear the ticking behind you. Get a little quieter. And then a little quieter still. And you see her like kind of stop and pull pull you behind what looks like a this rusty metal

pile in the middle of like the pathway that you're running behind. It's like covered in grasses and plants, but they don't seem to be dangerous at all. And she pulls you to one side and like keeps your keeps you um keeps you both like down low. And you see the ticking plant, you hear it getting closer and closer. But she kind of puts a finger to her lips and just keeps you quiet. And you see this.

plant dragging itself along the ground, this giant podge just kind of like ticking and hissing and ticking, and you hear it ticks off in the distance as it seems to be responding. It's not a random ticking. You know that. You know it's not random. And you see it begin to slowly pass and make its way down the road and then finally it goes off into the bushes and into the trees.

And then finally the girl kind of like takes a bit of a breath and like sits down with her back against this like metal rust bucket that's behind you. Um and she sees she untensions the crossbow. Um she takes like a couple of breaths and she looks at you. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. You're welcome. You should pay atten you should pay more attention to your surroundings. I know. It's not safe. I know. Mm-hmm. You should not be all out here alone if you're not good at it.

We need food and and seeds and and plants and I found some grapes and they have seeds in them and berries and they have seeds in them, so At least what I got uh can feed us for a little bit long. I'm I'm Arinda. I'm Lark. You don't seem very sure about that. Uh I'll call you luck if you want me to. Yes. Uh Locke's gonna um point to the to the black box that they have and uh say that is too distracting. Not when you need to listen.

Yeah, I I I I don't know what those things are, but they looked really dangerous. Uh how did you You look awfully l young to be out here on your own. Do I need do I need to get you back somewhere? No. I live here. I I mean I I get around. I don't live here. I just I I go where those things are not. If you want I I know a place that those places those things aren't. We don't have a lot of Scary plants where I live. You you can come with us if you want.

Um, they look a little bit pensive and uh unsure, but then they decide to take the chance and say. Okay. And um cool. Um Uh is she kind of like stands up and then just she realizes that as she stands up that she's actually just still holding your hand. Um self consciously just lets go and puts her hands like in her in It's in her butt area. She's like, Like just the same as they notice it. They do this this awkward thing where they're just uh um Um Okay, sorry. Sorry about that.

We're safe now, I think. Yeah. Yeah, I I I think so. Um We need to make you faster. You're very slow. I'm they would have gotten you. I'm better at climbing than running. I'm better at running than climbing. Um yeah, let's um the um the people I'm with, uh and the b boats down uh in this way. It is probably about ten minutes, not much. What is a boat?

Um Hm. Uh you see this like giant like metal car here and she kinda taps the side of the thing very quietly and you see like rust beginning to fall inside what we know as a car, but it's just a giant rust bucket, do you? Oh yeah, the giant rust bracket. Yeah. It's it's like this, but for the land and not bro that's a terrible description, I'm sorry. Um What what is it doing in water? It it d I think it water d they don't like water?

And like uh they they chip a little bit at the rust, that's like flaking off the Uh I am sorry, I described that terribly. Um It's it's something that floats on the water. Uh the plants don't seem to like crossing the water very much and We can get on this um ours is made of something called carbon fiber or whatever the I I don't really know what it's called. But it's something that floats in the water and we can get on it and go to an island where there isn't Those scary clicky things.

I did not understand half of the words you said, but if there are no plants, I that sounds good. Yeah, well I think anything sounds better than that weird ticking noise they made. Yeah. It keeps you awake at night. That's talk you can see him coming up and as you kind of like continue walking down this road um you see this like

kinda middle aged man. Um he's quite thin. Um he has a lot of tone to his muscles but it's obviously he doesn't eat loads. I mean it's the apocalypse so he's quite thin anyway. Um and he has like this kind of like um like very like uh tight jacket on um and he looks like he knows how to handle himself. You can see him looking from side to side. He doesn't have one of these like little black boxes on him.

Um he can see that he has a backpack on but it's something that could be very easily s like shrugged off if needed. Um and you can see that he's carrying what looks like a really big fucking knife um on his hip. Um and he seems to move very quietly. And you see this older gentleman kind of like walking up the road and up the hill kind of towards where you are. And as you see a little bit further out, you can see this.

You can see the ocean, you can see water. Um you can see it lapping against the side of the pier, and you see this. wooden protrusion out into the ocean a little bit and you see this well, you see this kind of boat. that is attached to it. And you can see this slightly older looking woman who has grey hair and she has like this pipe in her mouth and you can see clouds of smoke going up as she keeps lighting it.

She looks quite well built. Um she is quite big. Um and it's obviously that she's had at least enough to eat in the apocalypse. Or at least that she's very physically strong. Um I do see her waving at uh the pair of you uh with a bit of a quizzical look on her face. Um but the gentleman reaches you first and he says Uh... Hi. Uh Lark is gonna like subconsciously duck a little bit behind Arenda.

Like not not the not the the awkward duck, but just a little bit like you know, a little like a side step, like a l tiny little step to the back. Uh your friend then. Uh Hi, I'm I'm Tork, who are you? Large Nice. Uh I assume you wanna lift to a place where there's none of these hellscape monsters tryna get you? They're nodding frantically. Good. You're gonna have to tell me how you managed to survive out here uh so long. Uh unless you have people you're supposed to get back to. Mm no.

Come on then, better feed you up. Sure. Needs to be a bit taller, a bit stronger. You gotta have to tell me how you how well you've hidden from all this all this stuff. Gotta tell me everything. Oh I'm small. Maybe we should get you a decent knife. Yeah. Lark is going to like uh they they probably still have like uh the hand sickle in their hand. Like they're they're they're just like meekly like holding it up a little bit. Like, I have this. This is good enough.

Well, You obviously know what you're doing with it, you survive this long, so It's probably still the black fluid dripping from it. Ha ha ha. Properly saved a render then, huh? That's how you manage to be friends. Got it, got it. All right. Go on you two. On the boat. Layla Lark Lark Layla. I just see the old woman kind of like grunt and

Chewing on the end of her pipe still, puffing away at it. And she kind of like she doesn't really back up but she points like kind of like to the front of the boat where uh Arenda kind of like steps in and she kind of like Arenda throws her hands up so that you can like more easily climb or jump in. Um As as Lark passes by Layla, uh Lark is g just going to like i uh they say nothing, they just uh incline their head like politely a little bit.

You think Layla might possibly approve of this because you're the only one not chatting up a storm. Uh And as you notice that the the boat begins to get going, you see that um that Layla puffing away starts rowing this boat out towards what looks like an island um in the middle of like this kind of bay area. It takes a little while to get there. I didn't know that the plants didn't go over the water.

They really don't like it. There are some like plants like if you look over the side of the boat, um you can see there's some plants on the bottom and they're a little bit weird as well. But for the most part the most dangerous ones don't really bother us on the island, so Lark is gonna lean over the boat, look, see the plants and take like shudder a little bit. Like they have to resist. Yeah. It's a reason. Ha ha ha.

Yeah, they're they're quite far down and you can see like lots of different colours and some of them seem to be glowing weirdly as well. Yeah, they are quite a distance below you at this point. Oh okay. I thought you meant like on the side of the boat. Ha ha ha.

Yeah, see we do at the bottom of the ocean. Okay. Um And yeah, we basically uh We see Arenda and Lark and Tork and Layla um just rowing their way towards this large island in the middle of the And as like you kind of are going forward Arenda says so Welcome to Driftwoods. It's kind of safe. Mostly. I Thank you.

Sully's prequel. The collective is a group of people banding together with the goal of helping humanity survive within this plant-based Eldritch apocalypse. They have many small outposts, and one such collective is called Despassard. Where a politician is balancing hard decisions and family life. We find ourselves this evening in a home. This home houses three people. It houses revenue.

His daughter Brithiel, who we're just going to be calling Bri, and also Revan's brother. So Aethel, who is Revan's brother? I'm gonna be playing a man named Sully. Uh, Sutter's a thirty nine year old man. Um he has um kinda uh whitish hair, but you see can see like the remnants of uh dark dark brown in there. But it's mostly gone and it started thin really, really badly. Um

H has age and weather has kinda taken a toll on him. He spent a lot of time outdoors in his uh young adult years, but he's spent a lot of time indoors recently, so the color kinda has faded. But he still has that like kinda you can see it when you look at him that he spent a lot of time outdoors. Like um what's it called? Weather beaten skin, I think is the phrasing. Yeah.

Yeah. Uh he's wearing rather mundane clothes. Uh if I understand correctly where he is right now, he's probably wearing some very comfortable clothes. Uh as as he frets over papers and books and uh piles of data that he's trying to scour through. Um he carries himself with a air of um what's the word I'm looking for? trained uh like rhythm.

Uh I'm imagining he's sitting at a desk right now and he's not doing that hunched over thing. Like he is a man that has spent uh years being told how to do things and he has learned how to do them and as such he sits uh straight back Uh he has this like chair set in the right position. He has his paper set in this right position. He probably even has a little stand to put the papers on if he needs to read them at a long time so he doesn't crook his neck. I'm imagining he's like um

Like you can tell when you uh like if you were to see him in that moment, it's like he's been doing this for a very long time, or if he hasn't, he like he read how to do this at some point, because this is not a natural way of like doing these things. Yeah. Um so we find Sully this evening, um, essentially in one corner of kind of the living room area.

Um it's not particularly big. None of the houses here in your particular collective are all that big. Um but you are afforded some luxuries compared to others thanks to Revan's job. You we find Sully in the corner of the living room at a desk. He is currently writing something, researching through things, um, and you hear the sounds of uh Brie kind of like

off to one side, like in the kitchen, laughing and uh talking to a slightly older boy, um, who happens to be Sally's son, whose name is Vivaldi. And you can hear the pair of them just talking away as Vivaldi is helping Bree with her homework or helping her like uh or making her food or dinner. It is quite late in the evening and you would have expected Revan to be back by now, but he is

Sorely not here yet. Okay. Is there anything you want to do? As you hear your son and your niece just Causing a little bit of ruckus in the kitchen area. Yeah, I I think um if i if it's getting close to dinner time and uh remon hasn't returned yet.

I think uh Sully would like organise his papers, like he puts little like notes and markers on each papers, he like piles them up like, Okay, this is where I was, this is where I'm going, okay, these are the next papers I'm gonna do. He puts them all away. And then he gets up, puts his the chair all the way up to the table before he walks away. And he's gonna enter the kitchen. Um, are you kids okay?

Um you see just as you say that, um, you see that um Vivaldi and Bree has set up this weird little game involving old elastic bands. And you can see that they have these tiny little wads and little like peas or like small objects. and they're shooting them at cans that are on like sitting on the on the the kitchen windowsill. Um and you see that three just seems to be nailing this one after another and they just seem to be like happily giggling away. That's uh

I hope those are not uh what was supposed to be for dinner, he says as he walks past it. I think he's gonna grab like a bag of whatever they're shooting. Ha ha. Uh Yeah. Um like trail mix. Just like really old and like really hard and it's not good at all. Um it's definitely like a scavenge. Um it's not is not good. Yeah, fine, fine. But Bree, you know you shouldn't play with food. I'm sorry, he said.

No problem. Uh Brahman was supposed to be home by now, right? I'm not losing track of time. The clock out there's that six. Yeah. Dad said he'd be home a little bit late today. I'm sorry, did he not tell you? Hm he may have. I've been very destructive. Um, yeah, speaking of, Dad, um uh we've already eaten. You seemed lost when I tried to hand you your dinner earlier. Uh Raven like l leans out to see if there's a plate of something in the living room. Jimmy and Sully

What did I say, Revan? Yeah. Really Sully leans out to like see if there's a plate or something in the living room. Yeah, it's like on a small table that has clearly been removed next to your desk. Oh, um Thank you, Vivaldi. Uh sorry, I've just been it's a lot going on. Yeah. Yeah, we know. Um Uh I I thought I'd I'd make some dinner. Um look, I I know that you're

Uh really busy. I'm gonna go uh this is gonna be awkward. And Bree just literally like shoots away from the kitchen and like Vivaldi has like his hands in his like at his side and his pockets and he's like obviously like looking a little bit like distressed, I guess. Uh Valdi, have a seat. He sits down. So listen sets opposite him. Uh yeah, um Look, I I know that you're really busy with Yeah. I thank you very much for taking care of Bree. No worries. She's funny.

Yeah. she's fine um Uh it's um I I really need to talk to you about something and I I know that you're really busy right now and trying to I've been trying for the last like three weeks to talk to you and um It's not easy.

Okay. Um Uh go ahead. I already intended to start cooking. I've put my notes away. I've got twenty minutes for you, boy. Could you take a psychology check for me, please? That's a success. Uh he has that kind of like You've hit a sore spot when you said you'd got twenty minutes for him. Um It's that like tongue in cheek, like, uhhuh. Yep, yeah. Exactly my point. Without saying that. You you've clearly hit a sole point with him.

Alright. Uh Sully's gotta like foul that too, like the side of like all right, fine, I'll make time for him tomorrow after the speech. Ha ha ha. Yeah. Uh Look, uh look I I know you're busy and I think I can hear Uncle Revan coming, so um Can you give me like Some actual time tomorrow morning. Yep. And Sully goes into uh his pocket and he gets out a notebook scheduler thingy. And he just like goes through it like um

The speech goes until three PM. Then I have the meeting with the reporter guy and if things go well we have a thing at five. Don't think that you're meeting with... Admin Guy at ten tomorrow. Right, yes. This seems to be important, so let's Book this for the evening, okay? I I d I don't have anything in the evening. I shouldn't have anything in the evening. So like sharp six o'clock. I'll come here, I'll cook something nice for us. Just the two of us. And

We'll have something good to eat. I'll get some meat. Like like good old fashioned meat. EC has like he has a bit of a smile. Um Yeah, that'd be good, Dad. You could grill it, you know, in the backyard. There's a fire pit out there we never turn on anymore. Yeah, I think the last time we had grilled food I think um I think I was Breeze Age. It was good though. Really but not.

Yeah. Yeah. All right. You've been busy. Uh not that I mind, I understand what you're doing for the collective is really important, Dad. Like I don't I don't blame you for not having I get it. It's not important. It's Necessary. They are ignoring The incoming c cataclysm that will hit all of us. If they don't change their ways. And there won't be a collective if I don't help them. Like I said, what you're doing is important, Dad. I I do believe that. Uh say I'm gonna head back home to mum's.

Yeah, yeah. I I know I said here, but um I think You're a grown man. You can make these decisions yourself. Yeah, yeah, I'm I I promised Mumma I'd help her out this evening before tomorrow, so What are you guys up to? He asks that coy as if he doesn't care. Uh, just you know, moving stuff around, helping her reorganise for the move, you know, when I move out.

grabs his jacket and just like throws it over his shoulder and you hear him like open the door and you hear like another voice, you you very quickly recognize Revan. Um could you make a listen check for me, please? No, I don't get that. Uh Cersei Fail? Yep. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Um you hear them like speaking very quietly, um and then a few moments later you hear the door close and you hear Vivaldi like make his way across the kind of like area it's just outside the house.

And you see like Revan coming in and you can immediately tell that Revan's eyes are kind of Very bloodshot. Um, and you can see that his face is just a blotchy mess. Um, and he's just kind of shaking the second that he use this you see him. Mm. Uh I think Sully gets up from the chair. I think he was probably going through his scheduler kinda absent mindedly when the when his son left.

So he like when he hears the door closed and he manages like take in what it's what it looks like, he just kinda closes the book like Uh Yeah. So Revan is uh quite a quite a thin guy. Um he went kind of balding a long time ago. Um he's like very thin and very weedy, um, and he has like no real strength to him. Um He's always been the nerdier of the two. Um and he looks at Oh yeah.

Um and yeah, you can see that he's like not exactly struggling to stand, but he's definitely using the walls and reaching out for the the kind of arm the kind of the chair that um Vivaldi had just left and just kind of Very quickly like drops himself into it. There's like an audible like creak of the chair as he lands and I Uh yeah, okay. He throws himself on the chair. He's not gonna get himself to danger. Uh Sully just kinda like rubs his head and just like ah yeah, this is what I need.

And he goes into the living room where I'm assuming he has sat himself down and Sully's gonna grab the chair that he was working at the desk with and he's gonna move it over to where uh Revan is sitting. And he's going to put it down. Sit down.

And he's gonna uh like he's gonna steeple his fingers uh in his in his f uh in his lap and assume a position that he has done many, many times before, where people are having nervous breakdowns or drunken anger fits and he's gonna get ready to listen to some Some somebody's problems that he can't do anything about. Yeah. Um This isn't a a normal, normal thing with uh Revan, but it It's something that's definitely No. Done before with it.

Sully one hundred percent is currently assuming this is something to do with uh Breeze's late mother. missing mother or the person that Sully never brings up really unless he's super drunk. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hey, how much shit get the fuck away from me? Um, yeah. Uh yeah. Where's Brie? He's already eaten. We've ultimately served it. I think she's in her room right now. I think Vivaldi taught her some kinda game with rubber bands. Get that's good.

You can see like he puts a hand across his face and you can see that he's just wiping tears out of his eyes. Um Yeah. Oh sorry Fuck. Everything I've worked for. It's gone. I'm assuming you're being dramatic because you're But previously. I am still scared. Shockingly not drunk Okay. You know I want you. Kid come in, be my boss. He did it. He took me off the project. And now A hard problem. Recalibrate. So goddamn close. They took it Yeah. Fifteen years.

They don't believe in it. They don't Get a little bit more of the carrot particles I could. I could show them it's not just feelings and and ideas and theories like they think it is. I have actual numbers, I have actual data and I can I can make this work if I had enough material and I had the right equipment and Fucking wind farms.

And just like you know that he would throw something, but he doesn't want to make too much noise to disturb Bree. You can see him like reach out for something and just close his fist and just start pacing.

Alright, uh come on, Revan. And he's gonna like grab his shirt and start moving him and th he's taking him to the backyard. Yeah. Um Yeah, like it's it's really small. There is one. And importantly, it's paved. It's it's none of this grass shit. Um it is it is like covered in in in tiles and pavement. Um yeah.

Sully's gonna start rooting around uh in the like little f like uh storage container they have out there for like a little bit of firewood that he had set aside. Making a mental note, now I need to buy more firewood for tomorrow. He's gonna throw it in the fire pit and start the fire. Sit down, sit down. You can see that he just like slumps down in like a a chair that's like kind of nearby to the fire pit. Okay. They set this kit in like what was it? Like three months ago?

Yeah. I told you, I told you they were sending him in to stop me on this goddamn project. もう一気です Where did he come from? How does he have power over you? He's young, smoozes the right people. Oh no, Sally, I I don't know how the fuck he got this. They don't believe in what I'm doing. And if I don't

If I don't fix this power problem, there's no amount of recalibrating that wind farm is gonna is gonna make up for that power shortfall we're gonna have. We are gonna run out of energy so soon. Everything is gonna fall to shit. No, I know. That's why I'm doing what I'm doing. I know If those fences fail, I can't make it out there. I'm not you, I'm not strong. I can't make it out there. Okay. You need a beer, but we don't have any. No I don't know But you need to calm down.

No, you need to calm down. That's what you need to do. First of all, nothing spad's gonna happen to you pre or you pre or Vivaldi. Nothing bad. I've taken care of more useless people out there than the four three of you. Vivaldi is a good boy and he can take care of himself. I believe in him one hundred percent. And Bree is coming along nicely. Yes, you would be a burden, but you'd be a burden that we love. Like a a puppy with three legs. Thanks. I I know what you mean. Thanks.

Wind farms really. Yeah. That's what they put the new kids on. Yeah. I don't know what I've done to piss anyone off, Sally. I don't know if it's me, I don't know if it's you, I don't know if it's Vithaldi, I don't know if it's the fact that Bree's mum up and left. I don't know. I ds I don't understand how they can look at the data and decide it's not worth pursuing. It is I know maybe it is me, maybe it's because I won't go out and find the shit myself. I d I can't.

Well you know exactly why it is. They're useless paper pushers. Was she nothing? But and data. They will never invest in anything that doesn't bring them instant gratitude. I know. I know. I'm just glad that you can at least Listen to me when I tell you what the numbers mean. I don't know. I'm not you. I don't know what these mon numbers mean, but I trust you and I trust your ingenuity. Your intuition. You've never let me wrong. And I know that you just need to be They're carrot particles.

For you, K-A-R-A-K. You know I've been asking about them on the reclamation missions, and when I get to deal with the traitors. I've been keeping my eyes out for it, but there's nobody's collecting this and I don't know how to describe it well enough. I nobody's smart enough out there. There are bots of hillbillies out there. No, they just they didn't get the same Education I did, that's all Sally. You could get it too if you applied, but I'm just glad that you're stronger than me.

Not stronger. Just different. That's why you pick up the violin and I got the fiddle. Ha ha ha. Fuck. It's just because I had bigger hands, you know that. Sally, you gotta win tomorrow. I've got all the data I need. I've got everything clearly laid out. I can easily point out that we've been clearly lacking in our power production while upc increasing our uh manufacturing. We're trading out more than we're creating. This is un this we're circling the trade. It's clear.

It's just a lot of the data. Isn't exactly readily available. I don't have access to like the fundamental numbers, but I I can clearly show from my experience and from a lot of people that are reputable that like this is happening. Just remember not to expose us once we gave you the information, okay? No, of course not, of course not. I should have more than enough to make it obvious to anybody who's listening that this is a problem. What's the name of that kid? Gust-tabulous.

Yeah. I came in with a lot about ten years ago. Heard me wrong, he is smart. He's not an idiot. It's misguided, I guess. He's not smart, he's charismatic. He's managed to trick the right people in the right places. Or I may be underestimating him. He may be smart and charismatic. Deadly combination, eh? That's why Mom and Dad gave you the wits. Yeah. What? not gonna waste him on you, are they? And he kind of reaches over and like off handily like slaps your shoulder.

Uh you see him like rub uh like furiously rub at his his face and his eyes, and he kinda looks back at you, he's like What do you think? Current off to chat with Brie. No. Absolutely not. Sit there for another fifteen minutes. Think about what words you're gonna use with her tonight. Don't fuck this up. She does not need to know her father was crying. Yeah I know. I know. Go on, go in. I'm alright. So it gets up though. We're gonna fix this, brother.

Ralph's prequel. Just because someone is alive and in the apocalypse, it does not mean that they're free. Or that they can be trusted. Good deeds sometimes come with ulterior motives, and sudden help often comes at a price. Default setting. It just doesn't feel fair when you're the one who tried to do good. And yet, you're the one tied up. You hear the blinking of lights coming on. And then what sounds like a very high pitched wine. And as you open your eyes you see in front of you.

Rows and rows of tables with what looks like Little planters on top of all of them, growing different types of vegetables and fruits and all sorts. The room is pretty big and you find yourself quite close to the door. There's a single door in and out. And you find that your wrist is There's something on it, it's quite tight, and as you look down you realise that there is some sort of manacle on it. And as you look to one side you see that it is attached to a pipe.

You're able to get up and move around. It's you know, you're not stuck to the floor. You can move up and around where the pipes are, but you can't get very far. So Neil? Who are we looking at? Ralph Jackson is Kind of average height. He has green eyes and kind of short auburn hair. It kind of naturally sticks up a bit on top. And uh I think he's just in regular clothes now as he finds himself uh here. He's probably not super kitted at the moment, um c handcuffed to a pipe. So Ha ha.

Yeah, so we're not expecting, you know, leather jacket. It's Mm. Fancy machetes or any any fun things that I No. No. Um Alas you find yourself just wearing your everyday clothes handcuffed to a pipe inside of what looks like a grow room. Um The door opens. And you see. through kind of like the the the opening of the door, you see a young woman with kind of blondish, um, shoulder length hair and kind of like Green eyes. You kind of immediately stopped seeing her as the door closed.

Short, kind of like blackish hair with like obvious showings of grey coming through. It is like, yep, in a year's time, this man is gonna be fully grey. Um He looks quite well built. Um he isn't lean. He also looks like he's had enough to eat here in the apocalypse. Um but he is he's not carrying spare

He's not carrying anything spare on his frame. He looks like he is uh quite capable and handy. Um whereas you look like you've possibly gone to seed a little bit, he definitely looks quite physically fit, um if a little bit older. A little hunched to his shoulders, but old man strength sort of thing. Um he's wearing a casual shirt and trousers and you can see that um across his eyes he's wearing what looks like a like we would call it a VR headset, but not quite as like

bulky as ours are. Um, like from your observations you would have seen that this is something that's quite common among the people um that are basically holding you right now. Um and yeah, you can't really see his eyes very much at all. Um and he looks at you. Um he turns his head to look at you and sees that you're standing and kind of like nods once and he says Ralph Uh he nods once.

Um, you can tell that he's definitely keeping a distance from you. Um so he's not like at the other end of the room, but he is definitely staying far enough away that you can't reach out with your arm to touch him. Um he's just uh giving you space. So this conversation's gonna be a little bit Awkward. Um I Guess I should start by saying thank you. He he kind of wiggles the headcuff jingles uh as he raises it slightly. Okay. For our own protection, I'm sure you understand. Look, I, um...

Great, so I've been watching you, eh? You know that. Yeah. Yeah, the three of us understand that You've been watching us pretty much the whole time. Right. I I know what you have here. He gestures to where he knows the computer's to be. Yeah. I know that This is a lot more complicated than that, but The short answer is I I know what you have here. Ai... Yeah. Find it valuable. I know you've Are protective over it. As you should be.

the old world might have gone, but what they left behind in those computers could be invaluable for restarting when things have You know, gone back to normal. We understand that your lot's been watching us. I know this sounds weird, but I just want to help, eh? I don't want trouble. He's clearly nervous. Um he's changed to the pipe. Yeah. Um this is a tense conversation. He just he's just uncomfortable, but he's not.

Yeah, like you can I'm not gonna make you roll a psychology or a psychoanalyst or anything like that. Um, but it it is clearly obvious that this guy that you're talking to, Keldon, is also very nervous and very uncomfortable. He he obviously doesn't know how to deal with what's going on, but he's doing his best. So like he you can tell that he's feeling the same and he sees that you are in a in a similar predicament.

I know that you looked. haven't really been Well the thing is. I guess I just want to know why you Save the rest of us. Right. I don't know that I could be here alone, you know. I I We all needed to survive in that situation, right? You understand that we've got to survive too, you know, the three of us. Yeah, I'm not gonna I'm not gonna I'm not gonna be trouble around, you know.

Uh I I know this is weird for everyone. Involved us, you And I wanna help, but you understand the position that helping you out puts us in, right? We can't really trust you. Oh I know. I look, you don't have to give me any power or control down here. I wanna I if I'm able to use the computers i i and learned and Help if possible, collect things, you know. I I I like I said, I f I find what is down here in

What you have and the things that you're protecting from the old world here are intriguing. They're I wouldn't know where to find anything else like this. Uh if if you're up to me I I know. I can probably take a guess. This is complicated though, right? You're probably well aware of what we could do to you. And you saved us by coming back here. give it a shot to try, maybe. we really the three of us have to talk.

Oh yeah, I'm not asking anything from you. You've got to do what you've got to do and you're gonna I mean the least of it is that while the three of us kinda owe you our lives No. For getting us back here safe. So I uh... Don't don't worry about that. It the I'm not wrong in thinking that this is the first time that you've got to be Spoken some my lot, right? That you didn't get any of the others you speak to any of the others before they Can imagine it's difficult.

I know what's happening, but you know... What can you do? I kinda wondered if you'd always knew what we were up to. I know you're always watching but like. Well, yeah. Okay, well, um It it really depends on what I I'm sorry too. I I guess it can't be I this ain't easy for us, but I know it's probably not easy for you and The three of us have got a talk. before we decide what to do with well, you for a starters. Класс.

If there's anything I can help you understand, I don't know what more insight I could have on anything than you, but questions about you and how long exactly you have been able to watch us and I if you're willing to help us learn. Uh I might be able to persuade the others to find a way to let you stay. Do what you gotta do, eh? But I'm I'm not gonna ask you for anything. You know what I value here. Yeah. It's the same reason most of us are still here. What we've got here is important.

get raided or destroyed. You don't just live on all the food here, gesturing to the food and the thing. You require other things as well. And um information by my understanding's been good for you to trade, so You've been livin' on it, but medicines. Good as good as gold for ya. Purpose, I guess. Help spread that information as well, when we can. I mean, yeah, we need medicine and food and water and all the other good stuff, but clothes. It's good for us to have a purpose.

There's not many A left down here. Well I know a lot of him or get to see him. They were gone before I was really paying much attention. It's just another reason why we can't really trust ya. Um sorry, mate. I understand. Takes a deep breath. And he takes a few steps forward and he puts her hand out to you. If for nothin' else, thank you.

It's almost hesitant, but it's hard to describe. Um yeah, he lifts his hand and very slowly accepts a normal handshake and Kind of takes a second glance down at his hand. Fits it back down to his side kinda awkwardly and um gives a nod.

You see him turn his head and you hear him shout All right, Lillian, lights up. Thank you for giving the sprouting a try. You can find the story of Lark, Ralph and Sully by searching the Sprouting into your podcatcher of choice. This has been a Blighthouse Studio Production. Thank you for listening. The Fable and Falling Network. Yeah. Where fiction producers flourish